Safety Culture for Regulator Competence Management in Embarking States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kandil, M.

2016-01-01

Full text: Safety is based on preventive actions where the ability of a regulatory body to fulfill its responsibilities depends largely on the competence of its staff. Building employees’ skills and knowledge is an investment for each employee and in the future of the organization. This building must be the competence of its staff integration with their safety culture, the essential to ensure competent human resources as required in the IAEA safety standards and other documents, in which the need and importance of ensuring regulatory competence is emphasized. As it involves both operational and management issues, safety culture is a sensitive topic for regulators whose role is to ensure compliance with safety requirements and not to intervene in management decisions. A number of embarking States are aspiring to develop nuclear power generation and this means that, among other things, regulatory bodies have to be established and rapidly expanded. This paper reports major considerations on the integration of safety culture with an adequate competence management system for regulators in embarking states. (author

Safety culture and quality management of Kartini research reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Syarip [Yogyakarta Nuclear Research Centre, Yogyakarta (Indonesia); Hauptmanns, Ulrich [Department of Plant Design and Safety, Otto-Von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg (Germany)

1999-10-01

The evaluation for assessing the safety culture and quality of safety management of Kartini research reactor is presented. The method is based on the concept of management control of safety (audit) as well as by using the developed method i.e. the questionnaires concerning areas of relevance which have to be answered with value statements. There are seven statements or qualifiers in answering the questions. Since such statements are vague, they are represented by fuzzy numbers. The weaknesses can be identified from the different areas contemplated. The evaluation result show that the quality of safety management of Kartini research reactor is globally rated as 'Average'. The operator behavior in the implementation of 'safety culture' concept is found as a weakness, therefore this area should be improved. (author)

Defining safety culture and the nexus between safety goals and safety culture. 4. Enhancing Safety Culture Through the Establishment of Safety Goals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tateiwa, Kenji; Miyata, Koichi; Yahagi, Kimitoshi

2001-01-01

Safety culture is the perception of each individual and organization of a nuclear power plant that safety is the first priority, and at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), we have been practicing it in everyday activities. On the other hand, with the demand for competitiveness of nuclear power becoming even more intense these days, we need to pursue efficient management while maintaining the safety level at the same time. Below, we discuss how to achieve compatibility between safety culture and efficient management as well as enhance safety culture. Discussion at Tepco: safety culture-nurturing activities such as the following are being implemented: 1. informing the employees of the 'Declaration of Safety Promotion' by handing out brochures and posting it on the intranet home page; 2. publishing safety culture reports covering stories on safety culture of other industry sectors, recent movements on safety culture, etc.; 3. conducting periodic questionnaires to employees to grasp how deeply safety culture is being established; 4. carrying out educational programs to learn from past cases inside and outside the nuclear industry; 5. committing to common ownership of information with the public. The current status of safety culture in Japan sometimes seems to be biased to the quest of ultimate safety; rephrasing it, there have been few discussions regarding the sufficiency of the quantitative safety level in conjunction with the safety culture. Safety culture is one of the most crucial foundations guaranteeing the plant's safety, and for example, the plant safety level evaluated by probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) could be said to be valid only on the ground that a sound and sufficient safety culture exists. Although there is no doubt that the safety culture is a fundamental and important attitude of an individual and organization that keeps safety the first priority, the safety culture in itself should not be considered an obstruction to efforts to implement

Safety Culture Perspective. Managing the pre Managing the pre-operational phases of new NPPs and creating the safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cowan, Pamela B.; Oh, Chaewoon; Dahlgren Persson, Kerstin; Carnino, Annick

2008-01-01

Nuclear safety is a key for the revival of nuclear energy future programmes. Lots of competent people will be needed worldwide for ensuring the safety of the installations both existing ones and future ones. Their expertise should range from design to operation, from regulatory role to operators, from fuel fabrication to waste disposal. The challenge in front of us will be to prepare for the right recruitment, the development of the needed expertise in order to face the demand in developed countries, in countries with economies in transition and in developing countries. Time allocated for the panel does not allow for covering all aspects but the panelists will cover some of the important aspects of the challenge in terms of needs, of new competencies, of learning from operation and licensing requirements including for new designs. The key objectives of the panel are: 1- Maintaining safe operation, learning from experience, licensing including aging management and re-licensing with safety improvements for existing installations: - Presentation by Junko Ogawa of the experience and lessons learned from the earthquake on Kashiwasaki Kariwa NPP: effects in terms of manpower involved in the investigation, effects on regulations and licensing, expertise used. - Presentation by Pamela Cowan of her experience in preparing licensing actions, regulatory compliance and interface with the Regulator for both operating plants and modern requirements for constructing new ones. 2 - Special training needed for the human aspect of safety: what are the challenges in areas of safety culture and management of safety: - Presentation by Chae Woon Oh of the Korean safety culture features developed nationally, at the regulator and at the operating organizations and their integration within the safety training programmes. - Presentation by Kerstin Dahlgren Person of the needs in terms of safety culture and safety management, in terms of expertise, practitioners and assessors. 3 - How to

Safety Culture Perspective. Managing the pre Managing the pre-operational phases of new NPPs and creating the safety culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cowan, Pamela B. [Exelon Generation, 200 Exelon Way, 19348 Kennett Square, PA 19348 (United States); Oh, Chaewoon [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, 19 Gusung-Dong, Yuseong-Ku, 305-338 Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Dahlgren Persson, Kerstin [International Atomic Energy Agency, Wagramer Strasse 5, PO BOX 100 A-1400 Vienna (Austria); Carnino, Annick [IAEA, Division of Nuclear Installation Safety, Wagramer Strasse 5, PO BOX 100 A-1400 Vienna (Austria)

2008-07-01

Nuclear safety is a key for the revival of nuclear energy future programmes. Lots of competent people will be needed worldwide for ensuring the safety of the installations both existing ones and future ones. Their expertise should range from design to operation, from regulatory role to operators, from fuel fabrication to waste disposal. The challenge in front of us will be to prepare for the right recruitment, the development of the needed expertise in order to face the demand in developed countries, in countries with economies in transition and in developing countries. Time allocated for the panel does not allow for covering all aspects but the panelists will cover some of the important aspects of the challenge in terms of needs, of new competencies, of learning from operation and licensing requirements including for new designs. The key objectives of the panel are: 1- Maintaining safe operation, learning from experience, licensing including aging management and re-licensing with safety improvements for existing installations: - Presentation by Junko Ogawa of the experience and lessons learned from the earthquake on Kashiwasaki Kariwa NPP: effects in terms of manpower involved in the investigation, effects on regulations and licensing, expertise used. - Presentation by Pamela Cowan of her experience in preparing licensing actions, regulatory compliance and interface with the Regulator for both operating plants and modern requirements for constructing new ones. 2 - Special training needed for the human aspect of safety: what are the challenges in areas of safety culture and management of safety: - Presentation by Chae Woon Oh of the Korean safety culture features developed nationally, at the regulator and at the operating organizations and their integration within the safety training programmes. - Presentation by Kerstin Dahlgren Person of the needs in terms of safety culture and safety management, in terms of expertise, practitioners and assessors. 3 - How to

Managing risk in healthcare: understanding your safety culture using the Manchester Patient Safety Framework (MaPSaF).

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Dianne

2009-03-01

To provide sufficient information about the Manchester Patient Safety Framework (MaPSaF) to allow healthcare professionals to assess its potential usefulness. The assessment of safety culture is an important aspect of risk management, and one in which there is increasing interest among healthcare organizations. Manchester Patient Safety Framework offers a theory-based framework for assessing safety culture, designed specifically for use in the NHS. The framework covers multiple dimensions of safety culture, and five levels of safety culture development. This allows the generation of a profile of an organization's safety culture in terms of areas of relative strength and challenge, which can be used to identify focus issues for change and improvement. Manchester Patient Safety Framework provides a useful method for engaging healthcare professionals in assessing and improving the safety culture in their organization, as part of a programme of risk management.

Safety culture and accident analysis-A socio-management approach based on organizational safety social capital

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao, Suman

2007-01-01

One of the biggest challenges for organizations in today's competitive business environment is to create and preserve a self-sustaining safety culture. Typically, Key drivers of safety culture in many organizations are regulation, audits, safety training, various types of employee exhortations to comply with safety norms, etc. However, less evident factors like networking relationships and social trust amongst employees, as also extended networking relationships and social trust of organizations with external stakeholders like government, suppliers, regulators, etc., which constitute the safety social capital in the Organization-seem to also influence the sustenance of organizational safety culture. Can erosion in safety social capital cause deterioration in safety culture and contribute to accidents? If so, how does it contribute? As existing accident analysis models do not provide answers to these questions, CAMSoC (Curtailing Accidents by Managing Social Capital), an accident analysis model, is proposed. As an illustration, five accidents: Bhopal (India), Hyatt Regency (USA), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Westray (Canada) and Exxon Valdez (USA) have been analyzed using CAMSoC. This limited cross-industry analysis provides two key socio-management insights: the biggest source of motivation that causes deviant behavior leading to accidents is 'Faulty Value Systems'. The second biggest source is 'Enforceable Trust'. From a management control perspective, deterioration in safety culture and resultant accidents is more due to the 'action controls' rather than explicit 'cultural controls'. Future research directions to enhance the model's utility through layering are addressed briefly

Safety culture and accident analysis-A socio-management approach based on organizational safety social capital

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rao, Suman [Risk Analyst (India)]. E-mail: sumanashokrao@yahoo.co.in

2007-04-11

One of the biggest challenges for organizations in today's competitive business environment is to create and preserve a self-sustaining safety culture. Typically, Key drivers of safety culture in many organizations are regulation, audits, safety training, various types of employee exhortations to comply with safety norms, etc. However, less evident factors like networking relationships and social trust amongst employees, as also extended networking relationships and social trust of organizations with external stakeholders like government, suppliers, regulators, etc., which constitute the safety social capital in the Organization-seem to also influence the sustenance of organizational safety culture. Can erosion in safety social capital cause deterioration in safety culture and contribute to accidents? If so, how does it contribute? As existing accident analysis models do not provide answers to these questions, CAMSoC (Curtailing Accidents by Managing Social Capital), an accident analysis model, is proposed. As an illustration, five accidents: Bhopal (India), Hyatt Regency (USA), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Westray (Canada) and Exxon Valdez (USA) have been analyzed using CAMSoC. This limited cross-industry analysis provides two key socio-management insights: the biggest source of motivation that causes deviant behavior leading to accidents is 'Faulty Value Systems'. The second biggest source is 'Enforceable Trust'. From a management control perspective, deterioration in safety culture and resultant accidents is more due to the 'action controls' rather than explicit 'cultural controls'. Future research directions to enhance the model's utility through layering are addressed briefly.

Examining the Relationship between Safety Management System Implementation and Safety Culture in Collegiate Flight Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Mike Fuller

2017-01-01

Safety Management Systems (SMS) are becoming the industry standard for safety management throughout the aviation industry. As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to mandate SMS for different segments, the assessment of an organization's safety culture becomes more important. An SMS can facilitate the development of a strong…

Human factors in safety assessment. Safety culture assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Li; Deng Zhiliang; Wang Yiqun; Huang Weigang

1996-01-01

This paper analyses the present conditions and problems in enterprises safety assessment, and introduces the characteristics and effects of safety culture. The authors think that safety culture must be used as a 'soul' to form the pattern of modern safety management. Furthermore, they propose that the human safety and synthetic safety management assessment in a system should be changed into safety culture assessment. Finally, the assessment indicators are discussed

Safe patient care - safety culture and risk management in otorhinolaryngology.

Science.gov (United States)

St Pierre, Michael

2013-12-13

Safety culture is positioned at the heart of an organization's vulnerability to error because of its role in framing organizational awareness to risk and in providing and sustaining effective strategies of risk management. Safety related attitudes of leadership and management play a crucial role in the development of a mature safety culture ("top-down process"). A type marker for organizational culture and thus a predictor for an organization's maturity in respect to safety is information flow and in particular an organization's general way of coping with information that suggests anomaly. As all values and beliefs, relationships, learning, and other aspects of organizational safety culture are about sharing and processing information, safety culture has been termed "informed culture". An informed culture is free of blame and open for information provided by incidents. "Incident reporting systems" are the backbone of a reporting culture, where good information flow is likely to support and encourage other kinds of cooperative behavior, such as problem solving, innovation, and inter-departmental bridging. Another facet of an informed culture is the free flow of information during perioperative patient care. The World Health Organization's safe surgery checklist" is the most prevalent example of a standardized information exchange aimed at preventing patient harm due to information deficit. In routine tasks mandatory standard operating procedures have gained widespread acceptance in guaranteeing the highest possible process quality. Technical and non-technical skills of healthcare professionals are the decisive human resource for an efficient and safe delivery of patient care and the avoidance of errors. The systematic enhancement of staff qualification by providing training opportunities can be a major investment in patient safety. In recent years several otorhinolaryngology departments have started to incorporate stimulation based team trainings into their

[Safe patient care: safety culture and risk management in otorhinolaryngology].

Science.gov (United States)

St Pierre, M

2013-04-01

Safety culture is positioned at the heart of an organisation's vulnerability to error because of its role in framing organizational awareness to risk and in providing and sustaining effective strategies of risk management. Safety related attitudes of leadership and management play a crucial role in the development of a mature safety culture ("top-down process"). A type marker for organizational culture and thus a predictor for an organizations maturity in respect to safety is information flow and in particular an organization's general way of coping with information that suggests anomaly. As all values and beliefs, relationships, learning, and other aspects of organizational safety culture are about sharing and processing information, safety culture has been termed "informed culture". An informed culture is free of blame and open for information provided by incidents. "Incident reporting systems" are the backbone of a reporting culture, where good information flow is likely to support and encourage other kinds of cooperative behavior, such as problem solving, innovation, and inter-departmental bridging. Another facet of an informed culture is the free flow of information during perioperative patient care. The World Health Organisation's "safe surgery checklist" is the most prevalent example of a standardized information exchange aimed at preventing patient harm due to information deficit. In routine tasks mandatory standard operating procedures have gained widespread acceptance in guaranteeing the highest possible process quality.Technical and non-technical skills of healthcare professionals are the decisive human resource for an efficient and safe delivery of patient care and the avoidance of errors. The systematic enhancement of staff qualification by providing training opportunities can be a major investment in patient safety. In recent years several otorhinolaryngology departments have started to incorporate simulation based team trainings into their curriculum

Thoughts of the nuclear safety culture and 'star-level' management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Sen

2004-01-01

From the point of view that enterprise management has come into the stage of cultural management, this article divides the contents of nuclear safety culture into target management, safety management, quality management, site management, cost management, authority management, teamwork, information communication and continuous improvement. Each aspect win be classified by five 'star- level's according to the appearance, and the present situation of the company should be assessed with those star-level indices so as to find out the disadvantages. Improvement will follow with the promotion of company management level. (author)

Total safety management: An approach to improving safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blush, S.M.

1993-01-01

A little over 4 yr ago, Admiral James D. Watkins became Secretary of Energy. President Bush, who had appointed him, informed Watkins that his principal task would be to clean up the nuclear weapons complex and put the US Department of Energy (DOE) back in the business of producing tritium for the nation's nuclear deterrent. Watkins recognized that in order to achieve these objectives, he would have to substantially improve the DOE's safety culture. Safety culture is a relatively new term. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) used it in a 1986 report on the root causes of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In 1990, the IAEA's International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group issued a document focusing directly on safety culture. It provides guidelines to the international nuclear community for measuring the effectiveness of safety culture in nuclear organizations. Safety culture has two principal aspects: an organizational framework conducive to safety and the necessary organizational and individual attitudes that promote safety. These obviously go hand in hand. An organization must create the right framework to foster the right attitudes, but individuals must have the right attitudes to create the organizational framework that will support a good safety culture. The difficulty in developing such a synergistic relationship suggests that achieving and sustaining a strong safety culture is not easy, particularly in an organization whose safety culture is in serious disrepair

[Patient safety culture in directors and managers of a health service].

Science.gov (United States)

Giménez-Júlvez, Teresa; Hernández-García, Ignacio; Aibar-Remón, Carlos; Gutiérrez-Cía, Isabel; Febrel-Bordejé, Mercedes

To assess patient safety culture in directors/managers. Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out from February to June 2011 among the executive/managing staff of the Aragón Health Service through semi-structured interviews. A total of 12 interviews were carried out. All the respondents admitted that there were many patient safety problems and agreed that patient safety was a priority from a theoretical rather than practical perspective. The excessive changes in executive positions was considered to be an important barrier which made it difficult to establish long-term strategies and achieve medium-term continuity. This study recorded perceptions on patient safety culture in directors, an essential factor to improve patient safety culture in this group and in the organisations they run. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Application of fuzzy set theory for safety culture and safety management assessment of Kartini research reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Syarip; Hauptmanns, U.

2000-01-01

The safety culture status of nuclear power plant is usually assessed through interview and/or discussions with personnel and management in plant, and an assessment of the pertinent documentation. The approach for safety culture assessment described in IAEA Safety Series, make uses of a questionnaire composed of questions which require 'Yes' or 'No' as an answer. Hence, it is basically a check-list approach which is quite common for safety assessments in industry. Such a procedure ignores the fact that the expert answering the question usually has knowledge which goes far beyond a mere binary answer. Additionally, many situations cannot readily be described in such restricted terms. Therefore, it was developed a checklist consisting of questions which are formulated such that they require more than a simple 'yes' or 'no' as an answer. This allows one to exploit the expert knowledge of the analyst appropriately by asking him to qualify the degree of compliance of each of the topics examined. The method presented has proved useful in assessing the safety culture and quality of safety management of the research reactor. The safety culture status and the quality of safety management of Kartini research reactor is rated as 'average'. The method is also flexible and allows one to add questions to existing areas or to introduce new areas covering related topics

Managing for safety and safety culture within the UK nuclear industry. A regulator's perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tyrer, M.J.

2002-01-01

This paper outlines the basis of the legal system for the regulation of health and safety at work within the United Kingdom (UK), and in particular, the regulation of the nuclear industry. The framework, formulated by the regulator, which has been published as a practical guide for directors, managers, health and safety professionals and employee representatives for the successful management of health and safety is explained. This guidance, however, concentrates, to a large extent, on management systems and only addresses in part the types of issues, such as behaviours, values, attitudes and beliefs which contribute to the safety culture of an organization. The regulator of the UK nuclear industry has considered research, and other work, carried out by several organizations in this area, notably the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and produced its own framework for managing for safety at nuclear installations. As a regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and its inspectorate responsible for regulation of the nuclear industry, HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (HMNII), are not the appropriate organization to assess the safety culture of an organization, but positively encourage organizations to both carry out this assessment themselves and to monitor their performance. To this end, HSE has developed, and made available, the Health and Safety Climate Tool which is aimed at providing organizations with information which can be used as part of a continuous improvement process. (author)

Safety culture aspects of managing for safety. Experience of a large nuclear reprocessing site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rycraft, H.S.

1996-01-01

The Nuclear Industry is going through turbulent times both in terms of public acceptance and business issues. Safety is one area which impacts on whether the business is allowed to continue, and how an organisation organizes itself. The need to cut costs to make nuclear power a viable energy resource, has forced the nuclear utilities to review manning policies, and management style, and in particular how to maintain safety standards during a period of change, and ultimately support continuing improvement of standards. The shrinking workforce requires a new style of management, one that depends more on the people of the organisation taking responsibility for safety at all levels of the organisation. Not only personal safety but the safety of their colleagues, general public and the environment. The safety culture of an organisation is indivisible from the company culture, each aspect of a culture influences the whole and so the balance between business, safety and quality, has to be managed. BNFL provides a full fuel cycle service to nuclear power plants, and associated services to many national and international organisations. The following notes are taken from the work carried out in the company, and mostly at the Nuclear Reprocessing and Waste storage Site at Sellafield, based in the North West of England. Following the recent re-organisation, the site now employs 6200 people and has a further 1500 contractors working on construction activities on the site. Activities on the site range from remote handling to hands on tasks, involving highly active materials to low level waste. (author)

Safety culture in industrial radiography facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vincent-Furo, Evelyn

2015-02-01

This project reviewed published IAEA materials and other documents on safety culture with specific references to industrial radiography. Safety culture requires all duties important to safety to be carried out correctly, with alertness, due thought and full knowledge, sound judgment and a proper sense of accountability. The development and maintenance of safety culture in an operating organization has to cover management systems, policies, responsibilities, procedures and organizational arrangements. The essence is to control radiation hazard, optimize radiation protection to prevent or reduce exposures and mitigate the consequences of accidents and incidents. To achieve a high degree of safety culture appropriate national and international infrastructure should exist to ensure effective training of workers and management system that supports commitment to safety culture at all level of the organization; management, managers and workforce. The result of the review revealed that all accidents in industrial radiography facilities were due to poor safety culture practices including inadequate regulatory control oversight. Some recommendations are provided and if implemented could improve safety culture leading to good safety performance which will significantly reduce accidents and their consequences in industrial radiography. These examples call for a review of safety culture in Industrial radiography. (au)

Role of management in the development of safety culture at the operating organization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhong, W [International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

1997-09-01

Role of management in the development of safety culture at the operating organization to offer practical suggestions to assist in the development or improvement of a progressive safety culture. 2 figs.

Role of management in the development of safety culture at the operating organization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong, W.

1997-01-01

Role of management in the development of safety culture at the operating organization to offer practical suggestions to assist in the development or improvement of a progressive safety culture. 2 figs

Safety culture and quality management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edmondson, B.

1992-01-01

The concept of Safety Culture is defined along with its general attributes. The characteristics of a satisfactory level of Safety Culture, as it applies to an operating organisation are then presented in two ways, descriptive and as sets of questions against which an organisation's provision may be judged. (author) 1 fig

Understanding middle managers' influence in implementing patient safety culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutberg, Jennifer; Berta, Whitney

2017-08-22

The past fifteen years have been marked by large-scale change efforts undertaken by healthcare organizations to improve patient safety and patient-centered care. Despite substantial investment of effort and resources, many of these large-scale or "radical change" initiatives, like those in other industries, have enjoyed limited success - with practice and behavioural changes neither fully adopted nor ultimately sustained - which has in large part been ascribed to inadequate implementation efforts. Culture change to "patient safety culture" (PSC) is among these radical change initiatives, where results to date have been mixed at best. This paper responds to calls for research that focus on explicating factors that affect efforts to implement radical change in healthcare contexts, and focuses on PSC as the radical change implementation. Specifically, this paper offers a novel conceptual model based on Organizational Learning Theory to explain the ability of middle managers in healthcare organizations to influence patient safety culture change. We propose that middle managers can capitalize on their unique position between upper and lower levels in the organization and engage in 'ambidextrous' learning that is critical to implementing and sustaining radical change. This organizational learning perspective offers an innovative way of framing the mid-level managers' role, through both explorative and exploitative activities, which further considers the necessary organizational context in which they operate.

Defining safety culture and the nexus between safety goals and safety culture. 2. Decreasing Ambiguity of the Safety Culture Concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inoue, Shiichiro; Hosoda, Satoshi; Suganuma, Takashi; Monta, Kazuo; Kameda, Akiyuki

2001-01-01

The concept of safety culture was first advocated for the industrial world by INSAG reports that discussed the Chernobyl accident [INSAG-3 1988 (Ref. 1); INSAG-4, 1991 (Ref. 2)]. Since then, the term 'safety culture' has been discussed on various occasions when the causes of accidents were analyzed, and it has created interest among people-not only safety managers but also engineers and top management-and it has become inevitable as an influential factor of disasters. The JCO's 1999 criticality accident in Japan underscored the need for the safety culture concept. There had been a sort of myth in the past, at least among the people of this industry in Japan, that the nuclear industry had high technology and maintained a high level of safety. Therefore, the people related with the accident said in the first instance, 'Unbelievable') Some of them even insisted that the fuel processing and the power generation were two different systems. As the causes of JCO's criticality accident were revealed, they started to recognize that safety in the nuclear industry could not be secured without safety culture. We review the situation of the past 13 yr after the safety culture concept was introduced. To our regret, the culture has not yet taken root in the organization. What causes have delayed the realization of the culture? The first cause is the ambiguity of the concept. The expression 'safety culture' is too abstract to define something that the plant employees should do. People who are supposed to create the culture concept are held responsible for this point. The second cause is the enthusiasm and strong intentions of the related people. Although the importance of the concept is well recognized, the basic attitude of the people is like 'agreeing in generalities, but disagreeing in specifics'. The authorities for regulation seem somewhat suspicious about its effectiveness even if they set the rules and regulations based on the safety culture concept. Power companies are

Principal characteristics of good safety culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhong, W [International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

1997-09-01

The presentation briefly discusses the following aspects of safety culture: what is safety culture; universal features of safety culture; the main elements of safety culture; requirements at policy level; safety culture at government level, regulatory body, operators; requirements on managers.

Principal characteristics of good safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong, W.

1997-01-01

The presentation briefly discusses the following aspects of safety culture: what is safety culture; universal features of safety culture; the main elements of safety culture; requirements at policy level; safety culture at government level, regulatory body, operators; requirements on managers

Safe operation of nuclear power plants - Is safety culture an adequate management method?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piirto, A.

2012-01-01

One of the characteristics of a good safety culture is a definable commitment to the improvement of safety behaviours and attitudes at all organisational levels. A second characteristic of an organisation with excellent safety culture is free and open communication. The general understanding has been that safety culture is a part of organisation culture. In addition to safety culture thinking, proactive programmes and displays of proactive work to improve safety are required. This work needs to include, qt a minimum, actions aiming at reducing human errors, the development of human error prevention tools, improvements in training, and the development of working methods and the organisation's activities. Safety depends not only on the technical systems, but also on the organisation. There is a need for better methods and tools for organisational assessment and development. Today there is universal acceptance of the significant impact that management and organisational factors have over the safety significance of complex industrial installations such as nuclear power plants. Many events with significant economic and public impact had causes that have been traced to management deficiencies. The objective of this study is development of new methods to increase safety of nuclear power plant operation. The research has been limited to commercial nuclear power plants that are intended for electrical power generation in Finland. Their production activities, especially operation and maintenance, are primarily reviewed from a safety point of view, as well as human performance and organisational factors perspective. This defines the scope and focus of the study. The research includes studies related to knowledge management and tacit knowledge in the project management context and specific studies related to transfer of tacit knowledge in the maintenance organization and transfer of tacit knowledge between workers of old generation and young generation. The empirical results

Safe operation of nuclear power plants - Is safety culture an adequate management method?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Piirto, A.

2012-07-01

One of the characteristics of a good safety culture is a definable commitment to the improvement of safety behaviours and attitudes at all organisational levels. A second characteristic of an organisation with excellent safety culture is free and open communication. The general understanding has been that safety culture is a part of organisation culture. In addition to safety culture thinking, proactive programmes and displays of proactive work to improve safety are required. This work needs to include, qt a minimum, actions aiming at reducing human errors, the development of human error prevention tools, improvements in training, and the development of working methods and the organisation's activities. Safety depends not only on the technical systems, but also on the organisation. There is a need for better methods and tools for organisational assessment and development. Today there is universal acceptance of the significant impact that management and organisational factors have over the safety significance of complex industrial installations such as nuclear power plants. Many events with significant economic and public impact had causes that have been traced to management deficiencies. The objective of this study is development of new methods to increase safety of nuclear power plant operation. The research has been limited to commercial nuclear power plants that are intended for electrical power generation in Finland. Their production activities, especially operation and maintenance, are primarily reviewed from a safety point of view, as well as human performance and organisational factors perspective. This defines the scope and focus of the study. The research includes studies related to knowledge management and tacit knowledge in the project management context and specific studies related to transfer of tacit knowledge in the maintenance organization and transfer of tacit knowledge between workers of old generation and young generation. The empirical

Safety culture of nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Beixin

2008-01-01

This paper is a summary on the basis of DNMC safety culture training material for managerial personnel. It intends to explain the basic contents of safety, design, management, enterprise culture, safety culture of nuclear power plant and the relationship among them. It explains especially the constituent elements of safety culture system, the basic requirements for the three levels of commitments: policy level, management level and employee level. It also makes some analyses and judgments for some typical safety culture cases, for example, transparent culture and habitual violation of procedure. (authors)

A management system integrating radiation protection and safety supporting safety culture in the hospital

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almen, A.; Lundh, C.

2015-01-01

Quality assurance has been identified as an important part of radiation protection and safety for a considerable time period. A rational expansion and improvement of quality assurance is to integrate radiation protection and safety in a management system. The aim of this study was to explore factors influencing the implementing strategy when introducing a management system including radiation protection and safety in hospitals and to outline benefits of such a system. The main experience from developing a management system is that it is possible to create a vast number of common policies and routines for the whole hospital, resulting in a cost-efficient system. One of the key benefits is the involvement of management at all levels, including the hospital director. Furthermore, a transparent system will involve staff throughout the organisation as well. A management system supports a common view on what should be done, who should do it and how the activities are reviewed. An integrated management system for radiation protection and safety includes key elements supporting a safety culture. (authors)

Safety sans Frontières: An International Safety Culture Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Reader, Tom W; Noort, Mark C; Shorrock, Steven; Kirwan, Barry

2015-05-01

The management of safety culture in international and culturally diverse organizations is a concern for many high-risk industries. Yet, research has primarily developed models of safety culture within Western countries, and there is a need to extend investigations of safety culture to global environments. We examined (i) whether safety culture can be reliably measured within a single industry operating across different cultural environments, and (ii) if there is an association between safety culture and national culture. The psychometric properties of a safety culture model developed for the air traffic management (ATM) industry were examined in 17 European countries from four culturally distinct regions of Europe (North, East, South, West). Participants were ATM operational staff (n = 5,176) and management staff (n = 1,230). Through employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, good psychometric properties of the model were established. This demonstrates, for the first time, that when safety culture models are tailored to a specific industry, they can operate consistently across national boundaries and occupational groups. Additionally, safety culture scores at both regional and national levels were associated with country-level data on Hofstede's five national culture dimensions (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation). MANOVAs indicated safety culture to be most positive in Northern Europe, less so in Western and Eastern Europe, and least positive in Southern Europe. This indicates that national cultural traits may influence the development of organizational safety culture, with significant implications for safety culture theory and practice. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Assessment of safety culture at INPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lesin, S.

2002-01-01

Safety Culture covers all main directions of plant activities and the plant departments involved through integration into the INPP Quality Assurance System. Safety Culture is represented by three components. The first is the clear INPP Safety and Quality Assurance Policy. Based on the Policy INPP is safely operated and managers' actions firstly aim at safety assurance. The second component is based on personal responsibility for safety and attitude of each employee of the plant. The third component is based on commitment to safety and competence of managers and employees of the plant. This component links the first two to ensure efficient management of safety at the plant. The above mentioned components including the elements which may significantly affect Safety Culture are also presented in the attachment. The concept of such model implies understanding of effect of different factors on the level of Safety Culture in the organization. In order to continuously correct safety problems, self-assessment of the Safety Culture level is performed at regular intervals. (author)

Safety culture: modern slogan or effective contribution to safety?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salm, M.

1994-01-01

Safety culture is defined and its impact on nuclear power plants is documented using the words of the INSAG of IAEA. Two examples from the field of aviation and space flight testify, that the upper management, by its sheer image, may considerably influence actions of the lower levels of the hierarchy. Management therefore can do a lot more for safety than is commonly assumed. Two examples, although separated by 57 years, show that the mentioned influence remains unchanged inspire of progress in management- and organisation-methods as well as in safety-engineering. Safety culture is an overriding element of safety, acting at all levels of a hierarchy. Its action is most important on those levels, for which precise reglementation is hardly possible. The chain of technical and organisational measures guarantees safety only under the condition, that it is embedded in 'safety culture'. Safety culture therefore merits our full attention. (author) 1 fig

[Analysis of the safety culture in a Cardiology Unit managed by processes].

Science.gov (United States)

Raso-Raso, Rafael; Uris-Selles, Joaquín; Nolasco-Bonmatí, Andreu; Grau-Jornet, Guillermo; Revert-Gandia, Rosa; Jiménez-Carreño, Rebeca; Sánchez-Soriano, Ruth M; Chamorro-Fernández, Carlos I; Marco-Francés, Elvira; Albero-Martínez, José V

2017-04-04

Safety culture is one of the requirements for preventing the occurrence of adverse effects. However, this has not been studied in the field of cardiology. The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety culture in a cardiology unit that has implemented and certified an integrated quality and risk management system for patient safety. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 2 consecutive years, with all staff completing the Spanish version of the questionnaire, "Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture" of the "Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality", with 42 items grouped into 12 dimensions. The percentage of positive responses in each dimension in 2014 and 2015 were compared, as well as national data and United States data, following the established rules. The overall assessment out of a possible 5, was 4.5 in 2014 and 4.7 in 2015. Seven dimensions were identified as strengths. The worst rated were: staffing, management support and teamwork between units. The comparison showed superiority in all dimensions compared to national data, and in 8 of them compared to American data. The safety culture in a Cardiology Unit with an integrated quality and risk management patient safety system is high, and higher than nationally in all its dimensions and in most of them compared to the United States. Copyright © 2017 Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

Safety Culture Enhancement Project. Final Report. A Field Study on Approaches to Enhancement of Safety Culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lowe, Andrew; Hayward, Brent (Dedale Asia Pacific, Albert Park VIC 3206 (Australia))

2006-08-15

This report documents a study with the objective of enhancing safety culture in the Swedish nuclear power industry. A primary objective of this study was to ensure that the latest thinking on human factors principles was being recognised and applied by nuclear power operators as a means of ensuring optimal safety performance. The initial phase of the project was conducted as a pilot study, involving the senior management group at one Swedish nuclear power-producing site. The pilot study enabled the project methodology to be validated after which it was repeated at other Swedish nuclear power industry sites, providing a broad-ranging analysis of opportunities across the industry to enhance safety culture. The introduction to this report contains an overview of safety culture, explains the background to the project and sets out the project rationale and objectives. The methodology used for understanding and analysing the important safety culture issues at each nuclear power site is then described. This section begins with a summary of the processes used in the information gathering and data analysis stage. The six components of the Management Workshops conducted at each site are then described. These workshops used a series of presentations, interactive events and group exercises to: (a) provide feedback to site managers on the safety culture and safety leadership issues identified at their site, and (b) stimulate further safety thinking and provide 'take-away' information and leadership strategies that could be applied to promote safety culture improvements. Section 3, project Findings, contains the main observations and output from the project. These include: - a brief overview of aspects of the local industry operating context that impinge on safety culture; - a summary of strengths or positive attributes observed within the safety culture of the Swedish nuclear industry; - a set of identified opportunities for further improvement; - the aggregated

Guide for understanding and evaluation of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

This report was the guide of understanding and evaluation of safety culture. Operator's activities for enhancement of safety culture in nuclear installations became an object of safety regulation in the management system. Evaluation of operator's activities (including top management's involvement) to prevent degradation of safety culture and organization climate in daily works needed understanding of safety culture and diversity of operator's activities. This guide was prepared to check indications of degradation of safety culture and organization climate in operator's activities in daily works and encourage operator's activities to enhance safety culture improvement and good practice. Comprehensive evaluation of operator's activities to prevent degradation of safety culture and organization climate would be performed from the standpoints of 14 safety culture elements such as top management commitment, clear plan and implementation of upper manager, measures to avoid wrong decision making, questioning attitude, reporting culture, good communications, accountability and openness, compliance, learning system, activities to prevent accidents or incidents beforehand, self-assessment or third party evaluation, work management, change management and attitudes/motivation. Element-wise examples and targets for evaluation were attached with evaluation check tables. (T. Tanaka)

Safety culture in nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sundararajan, A.R.

1998-01-01

This paper after defining the term safety culture outlines the requirements at various levels of the plant management to ensure that safety culture pervades all activities related to the plant. Techniques are also indicated which can be used to assess the effectiveness of safety culture

Patient safety culture among nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Ammouri, A A; Tailakh, A K; Muliira, J K; Geethakrishnan, R; Al Kindi, S N

2015-03-01

Patient safety is considered to be crucial to healthcare quality and is one of the major parameters monitored by all healthcare organizations around the world. Nurses play a vital role in maintaining and promoting patient safety due to the nature of their work. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' perceptions about patient safety culture and to identify the factors that need to be emphasized in order to develop and maintain the culture of safety among nurses in Oman. A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. Patient safety culture was assessed by using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture among 414 registered nurses working in four major governmental hospitals in Oman. Descriptive statistics and general linear regression were employed to assess the association between patient safety culture and demographic variables. Nurses who perceived more supervisor or manager expectations, feedback and communications about errors, teamwork across hospital units, and hospital handoffs and transitions had more overall perception of patient safety. Nurses who perceived more teamwork within units and more feedback and communications about errors had more frequency of events reported. Furthermore, nurses who had more years of experience and were working in teaching hospitals had more perception of patient safety culture. Learning and continuous improvement, hospital management support, supervisor/manager expectations, feedback and communications about error, teamwork, hospital handoffs and transitions were found to be major patient safety culture predictors. Investing in practices and systems that focus on improving these aspects is likely to enhance the culture of patient safety in Omani hospitals and others like them. Strategies to nurture patient safety culture in Omani hospitals should focus upon building leadership capacity that support open communication, blame free, team work and continuous organizational learning. © 2014 International

Safety Culture Enhancement Project. Final Report. A Field Study on Approaches to Enhancement of Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowe, Andrew; Hayward, Brent

2006-08-01

This report documents a study with the objective of enhancing safety culture in the Swedish nuclear power industry. A primary objective of this study was to ensure that the latest thinking on human factors principles was being recognised and applied by nuclear power operators as a means of ensuring optimal safety performance. The initial phase of the project was conducted as a pilot study, involving the senior management group at one Swedish nuclear power-producing site. The pilot study enabled the project methodology to be validated after which it was repeated at other Swedish nuclear power industry sites, providing a broad-ranging analysis of opportunities across the industry to enhance safety culture. The introduction to this report contains an overview of safety culture, explains the background to the project and sets out the project rationale and objectives. The methodology used for understanding and analysing the important safety culture issues at each nuclear power site is then described. This section begins with a summary of the processes used in the information gathering and data analysis stage. The six components of the Management Workshops conducted at each site are then described. These workshops used a series of presentations, interactive events and group exercises to: (a) provide feedback to site managers on the safety culture and safety leadership issues identified at their site, and (b) stimulate further safety thinking and provide 'take-away' information and leadership strategies that could be applied to promote safety culture improvements. Section 3, project Findings, contains the main observations and output from the project. These include: - a brief overview of aspects of the local industry operating context that impinge on safety culture; - a summary of strengths or positive attributes observed within the safety culture of the Swedish nuclear industry; - a set of identified opportunities for further improvement; - the aggregated results of the

Current Activities on Nuclear Safety Culture in Korea. How to meet the challenges for Safety and Safety Culture?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oh, Chaewoon [International Policy Department Policy and Standard Division, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, 19 Gusung-Dong Yuseong-Ku, 305-338 DAEJEON (Korea, Republic of)

2008-07-01

'Statement of Nuclear Safety Policy' declared by the Korean Government elucidates adherence to the principle of 'priority to safety'. The 3. Comprehensive Nuclear Energy Promotion Plan (2007-2011) more specifically addressed the necessity to develop and apply 'safety culture evaluation criteria' and to strengthen safety management of concerned organizations in an autonomous way. Putting these policies as a backdrop, Korean Government has taken diverse safety culture initiatives and has encouraged the relevant organizations to develop safety culture practices of their own accord. Accordingly, KHNP, the operating organization in Korea, developed a 'safety culture performance indicator', which has been used to evaluate safety mind of employees and the evaluation results have been continuously reflected in operational management and training programs. Furthermore, KHNP inserted 'nuclear safety culture subject' into every course of more than two week length, and provided employees with special lectures on safety culture. KINS, the regulatory organization, developed indicators for the safety culture evaluation based on the IAEA Guidelines. Also, KINS has hosted an annual Nuclear Safety Technology Information Meeting to share information between regulatory organizations and industries. Furthermore, KINS provided a nuclear safety culture class to the new employees and they are given a chance to participate in performance of a role-reversal socio-drama. Additionally, KINS developed a safety culture training program, published training materials and conducted a 'Nuclear Safety Culture Basic Course' in October 2007, 4 times of which are planed this year. In conclusion, from Government to relevant organizations, 'nuclear safety culture' concept is embraced as important and has been put into practice on a variety of forms. Specifically, 'education and training' is a starting line and sharing

Making Safety Culture a Corporate Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Svenningsson, J.

2016-01-01

Safety Culture is something that we have actively worked with in the nuclear industry for a long time. Formally, it has been on the agenda since the Chernobyl accident. However, the work with creating a safe organizational culture can of course be traced back even further in time. Over the years a lot has happened in how we are approaching the concept of safety culture and especially how we look upon the human being as a part of the system and how we as humans interact with the organization and technology. For an organization to have a culture that promotes safety it is essential to create an ownership of safety with all workers within the site. To create this ownership it is vital to have the undivided commitment of the management. It all starts with the fundamental values of the organization. These values must then be concluded in firm expectations of behaviors that apply to all workers and management. This could be referred to as expectation of a Professional Behavior that allows us to live up to the company values. At OKG nuclear power plant, a successful Business Improvement Program was recently carried out with intention to develop and contribute to the maturity of the organization in terms of safety. One of the sub-programs of the program was called Professional Behavior - With purpose of making safety into a corporate culture. At OKG, Safety culture is something that systematically been addressed and worked with since 2004. Even though the Safety Culture program could be considered to already have reached a certain level of maturity the Business Improvement program helped the organization to lay the foundation for further development by clarify expected behaviors that was firmly cemented in to the corporate values.

Review of nuclear regulatory activities associated with safety culture and the management of safety in the United Kingdom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodhouse, P.A.

1995-01-01

This paper describes some of the key regulatory activities which have taken place in the United Kingdom in recent years in the areas of safety culture and management of safety. It explains how the UK's nuclear licensing regime, regulated and enforced by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, (NII), provides the framework for a viable safety management system and identifies a management of safety model which a NII Task Force has developed. It finally identifies further work which is being undertaken by the NII. (author). 4 refs, 2 figs

Methodology and applications for organizational safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakaue, Takeharu; Makino, Maomi

2004-01-01

The mission of our activity is making 'guidance of safety culture for understanding and evaluations' which comes in much more useful and making it substantial by clarifying positioning of safety culture within evaluation of the quality management. This is pointed out by 'Discussion on how to implement safety culture sufficiently and possible recommendation' last year by falsification issue of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company). We have been developing the safety culture evaluation structured by three elements. One is safety culture evaluation support tool (SCET), another is organizational reliability model (ORM), third is system for safety. This paper describes mainly organizational reliability model (ORM) and its applications as well as ticking the system for safety culture within quality management. (author)

Risk management and safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takano, K.

2007-01-01

Paper informs on the efforts to elaborate a feedback system for risk comprehensive evaluation and a system to improve structure safety foreseeing the possibility to control the latent risk, ensuring the qualitative evaluation of the safety level and improvement of safety culture in various branches of industry, first and foremost, in the electricity producing sector including the nuclear power industry [ru

Patient Safety Culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristensen, Solvejg

of health care professional’s behaviour, habits, norms, values, and basic assumptions related to patient care; it is the way things are done. The patient safety culture guides the motivation, commitment to and know-how of the safety management, and how all members of a work place interact. This thesis......Patient safety is highly prioritised in the Danish health care system, never the less, patients are still exposed to risk and harmed every day. Implementation of a patient safety culture has been suggested an effective mean to protect patients against adverse events. Working strategically...

Assessment of Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bilic Zabric, T.; Kavsek, D.

2006-01-01

A strong safety culture leads to more effective conduct of work and a sense of accountability among managers and employees, who should be given the opportunity to expand skills by training. The resources expended would thus result in tangible improvements in working practices and skills, which encourage further improvement of safety culture. In promoting an improved safety culture, NEK has emphasized both national and organizational culture with an appropriate balance of behavioural sciences and quality management systems approaches. In recent years there has been particular emphasis put on an increasing awareness of the contribution that human behavioural sciences can make to develop good safety practices. The purpose of an assessment of safety culture is to increase the awareness of the present culture, to serve as a basis for improvement and to keep track of the effects of change or improvement over a longer period of time. There is, however, no single approach that is suitable for all purposes and which can measure, simultaneously, all the intangible aspects of safety culture, i.e. the norms, values, beliefs, attitudes or the behaviours reflecting the culture. Various methods have their strengths and weaknesses. To prevent significant performance problems, self-assessment is used. Self-assessment is the process of identifying opportunities for improvement actively or, in some cases, weaknesses that could cause more serious errors or events. Self-assessments are an important input to the corrective action programme. NEK has developed questionnaires for safety culture self-assessment to obtain information that is representative of the whole organization. Questionnaires ensure a greater degree of anonymity, and create a less stressful situation for the respondent. Answers to questions represent the more apparent and conscious values and attitudes of the respondent. NEK proactively co-operates with WANO, INPO, IAEA in the areas of Safety Culture and Human

Nuclear safety culture based on the organizational and individual culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Jingxi; Ren Ou

2005-01-01

The nuclear safety culture is used increasingly and developed by countries that have nu- clear plants all over the world, since the term 'safety culture' was first introduced by IAEA in 1986. Enterprises culture reflects many terms in an enterprise, such as management level and staff quality. The safety culture is the center in a nuclear enterprises culture, and relates directly to the safety and outstanding achievement of operation. This paper discusses the nuclear safety culture from the viewpoints of the organizational and individual cultures. (authors)

IAEA’s Approach to Leadership, Management and Culture for Safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rzentkowski, G.

2016-01-01

In this session the director of the Division of Nuclear Installation Safety (NSNI) will describe the division’s approach to leadership, management and culture for safety and outline the strategy adopted for this work. The IAEA has developed a safety culture foundation framework which is used to support all installations’ and organisations’ work for continuous improvement to achieve excellence in nuclear safety performance. The framework has been developing since 1986 through the work of the IAEA and the nuclear community, and is based on nuclear organisations’ experiences (both in practices applied and events experienced) and the development of scientific knowledge on human and organisation factors that support nuclear safety performance. The main aim for the IAEA is to assist the Member States to translate the knowledge into practical and successful practise, and to further enhance the safety on nuclear installations. The Strategy of the division is to share the common foundation of the framework across the different nuclear sectors and ensure that application of improvement activities are firmly based on knowledge and appropriate context based solutions.

IAEA/USDOE senior management workshop on promotion of safety culture for the NPPS with RBMK reactors. Working material

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-09-01

The current workshop, co-sponsored by the IAEA and USDOE, was a continuation of the previous effort for further promotion of safety culture at RBMK NPPs. The objective of the workshop was to provide a forum for senior managers from governmental organizations and operating organizations to further exchange experience in understanding the factors influencing safety culture, in assessing safety culture at their own organizations and developing safety culture at RBMK NPPs. The workshop consisted of a broad scope of presentations to review the basic concepts and major elements of safety culture (ownership, accountability, pride, job satisfaction, trust, openness, etc.), to identify and discuss the various approaches used in different countries in attaining a strong safety culture, and to explain, through the use of practical examples, what the benefits of a strong safety culture are; how to improve the behavior of people, how to gain trust and openness, how to overcome difficulties in changing staff`s attitudes, and how to manage safety culture. 2 figs.

IAEA/USDOE senior management workshop on promotion of safety culture for the NPPS with RBMK reactors. Working material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

The current workshop, co-sponsored by the IAEA and USDOE, was a continuation of the previous effort for further promotion of safety culture at RBMK NPPs. The objective of the workshop was to provide a forum for senior managers from governmental organizations and operating organizations to further exchange experience in understanding the factors influencing safety culture, in assessing safety culture at their own organizations and developing safety culture at RBMK NPPs. The workshop consisted of a broad scope of presentations to review the basic concepts and major elements of safety culture (ownership, accountability, pride, job satisfaction, trust, openness, etc.), to identify and discuss the various approaches used in different countries in attaining a strong safety culture, and to explain, through the use of practical examples, what the benefits of a strong safety culture are; how to improve the behavior of people, how to gain trust and openness, how to overcome difficulties in changing staff's attitudes, and how to manage safety culture. 2 figs

Safety culture in transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decobert, V.

1998-01-01

'Safety culture' is a wording that appeared first in 1986, during the evaluation of what happened during the Tchernobyl accident. Safety culture is defined in the IAEA 75-INSAG-4 document as the characteristics and attitude which, in organizations and in men behaviours, make that questions related to safety of nuclear power plants benefits, in priority, of the attention that they need in function of their importance. The INSAG-4 document identifies three different elements necessary to the development of the safety culture: commitment of the policy makers, commitment of the managers of the industry, and commitment of individuals. This paper gives examples to show how safety culture is existing in the way Transnucleaire performs the activities in the field of transport of nuclear materials. (author)

Development of Safety Culture Indicators for HANARO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Jong-Sup; Lee, Kye-Hong

2007-01-01

Safety culture is more important than a technical matter for the management of nuclear facilities. Some of the accidents that have occurred recently in nuclear plants are important as a social problem besides a technical problem. That's why the management of nuclear plants has been focused on the safety culture to improve confidence of nuclear facilities. As for a safety culture, there are difficulties in that a tangible result does not come out clearly in spite of an effort for a long time. Some IAEA guides and reports about a safety culture and its evaluation method for nuclear power plants (NPP) were published after the Chernobyl accident. Until now there is no tool to evaluate a safety culture of for research reactors. HANARO developed its own safety culture indicators based on the IAEA's documents. The purpose of the development of the safety culture indicators is to evaluate and enhance the safety attitude in HANARO

Psychometric properties of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture for hospital management (HSOPS_M

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pfeiffer Yvonne

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background From a management perspective, it is necessary to examine how a hospital's top management assess the patient safety culture in their organisation. This study examines whether the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture for hospital management (HSOPS_M has the same psychometric properties as the HSOPS for hospital employees does. Methods In 2008, a questionnaire survey including the HSOPS_M was conducted with 1,224 medical directors from German hospitals. When assessing the psychometric properties, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA. Additionally, we proved construct validity and internal consistency. Results A total of 551 medical directors returned the questionnaire. The results of the CFA suggested a satisfactory global data fit. The indices of local fit indicated a good, but not satisfactory convergent validity. Analyses of construct validity indicated that not all safety culture dimensions were readily distinguishable. However, Cronbach's alpha indicated that the dimensions had an acceptable level of reliability. Conclusion The analyses of the psychometric properties of the HSOPS_M resulted in reasonably good levels of property values. Although the set of dimensions within the HSOPS_M needs further scale refinement, the questionnaire covers a broad range of sub-dimensions and supplies important information on safety culture. The HSOPS_M, therefore, is eligible to measure safety culture from the hospital management's points of view and could be used in nationwide hospital surveys to make inter-organisational comparisons.

Public safety risk management at socio-economic and / or historic-cultural significant dam sites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Earle, Gordon D.; Ryan, Katherine; Pyykonen, Nicole K.; Pitts, Lucas [Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, Peterborough, (Canada)

2010-07-01

The Lang Dam and adjoining gristmill, located near Peterborough are integral parts of the Lang Pioneer Village museum. Activities occurring within close proximity to the dam have led to safety issues. The owner (ORCA) has developed and implemented public safety management plans (PSMPs) for each of its water control structures, including the Lang Dam. ORCA gave special attention to the social, economic, aesthetic, historic and cultural dimensions associated the implementation of public safety management plans. These factors play a significant role in how well public safety measures (PSMs) are received by stakeholder groups and the general public. This paper reported the challenges of developing and implementing a PSMP for the Lang Dam, with the focus on property site-specific PSMS while preserving socio-economic and historic-cultural character and values. It was demonstrated that the dam owners, regulatory authorities, control agencies and preservationists need to come together to develop a holistic public safety management process.

Safety culture at Mochovce NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Markus, Jozef; Feik, Karol

2002-01-01

This article presents the approach of Mochovce NPP to the Safety culture. It presents activities, which have been taken by Mochovce NPP up to date in the area of Safety culture enhancement with the aim of getting the term into the subconscious of each employee, and thus minimising the human factor impact on occurrence of operational events in all safety areas. The article furthermore presents the most essential information on how the elements characterising a continuous progress in reaching the planned Safety culture goals of the company management have been implemented at Mochovce NPP, as well as the management's efforts to get among the best nuclear power plant operators in this area and to be an example for the others. (author)

Leadership and Management for Safety. General Safety Requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

This Safety Requirements publication establishes requirements that support Principle 3 of the Fundamental Safety Principles in relation to establishing, sustaining and continuously improving leadership and management for safety and an integrated management system. It emphasizes that leadership for safety, management for safety, an effective management system and a systemic approach (i.e. an approach in which interactions between technical, human and organizational factors are duly considered) are all essential to the specification and application of adequate safety measures and to the fostering of a strong safety culture. Leadership and an effective management system will integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human-and-organizational factor, societal and economic elements. The management system will ensure the fostering of a strong safety culture, regular assessment of performance and the application of lessons from experience. The publication is intended for use by regulatory bodies, operating organizations (registrants and licensees) and other organizations concerned with facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks

A hierarchical factor analysis of a safety culture survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Frazier, Christopher B; Ludwig, Timothy D; Whitaker, Brian; Roberts, D Steve

2013-06-01

Recent reviews of safety culture measures have revealed a host of potential factors that could make up a safety culture (Flin, Mearns, O'Connor, & Bryden, 2000; Guldenmund, 2000). However, there is still little consensus regarding what the core factors of safety culture are. The purpose of the current research was to determine the core factors, as well as the structure of those factors that make up a safety culture, and establish which factors add meaningful value by factor analyzing a widely used safety culture survey. A 92-item survey was constructed by subject matter experts and was administered to 25,574 workers across five multi-national organizations in five different industries. Exploratory and hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses were conducted revealing four second-order factors of a Safety Culture consisting of Management Concern, Personal Responsibility for Safety, Peer Support for Safety, and Safety Management Systems. Additionally, a total of 12 first-order factors were found: three on Management Concern, three on Personal Responsibility, two on Peer Support, and four on Safety Management Systems. The resulting safety culture model addresses gaps in the literature by indentifying the core constructs which make up a safety culture. This clarification of the major factors emerging in the measurement of safety cultures should impact the industry through a more accurate description, measurement, and tracking of safety cultures to reduce loss due to injury. Copyright © 2013 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The association between EMS workplace safety culture and safety outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Weaver, Matthew D; Wang, Henry E; Fairbanks, Rollin J; Patterson, Daniel

2012-01-01

Prior studies have highlighted wide variation in emergency medical services (EMS) workplace safety culture across agencies. To determine the association between EMS workplace safety culture scores and patient or provider safety outcomes. We administered a cross-sectional survey to EMS workers affiliated with a convenience sample of agencies. We recruited these agencies from a national EMS management organization. We used the EMS Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (EMS-SAQ) to measure workplace safety culture and the EMS Safety Inventory (EMS-SI), a tool developed to capture self-reported safety outcomes from EMS workers. The EMS-SAQ provides reliable and valid measures of six domains: safety climate, teamwork climate, perceptions of management, working conditions, stress recognition, and job satisfaction. A panel of medical directors, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, and occupational epidemiologists developed the EMS-SI to measure self-reported injury, medical errors and adverse events, and safety-compromising behaviors. We used hierarchical linear models to evaluate the association between EMS-SAQ scores and EMS-SI safety outcome measures. Sixteen percent of all respondents reported experiencing an injury in the past three months, four of every 10 respondents reported an error or adverse event (AE), and 89% reported safety-compromising behaviors. Respondents reporting injury scored lower on five of the six domains of safety culture. Respondents reporting an error or AE scored lower for four of the six domains, while respondents reporting safety-compromising behavior had lower safety culture scores for five of the six domains. Individual EMS worker perceptions of workplace safety culture are associated with composite measures of patient and provider safety outcomes. This study is preliminary evidence of the association between safety culture and patient or provider safety outcomes.

Why does Safety Culture Matter?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahlgren-Persson, Kerstin

2008-01-01

Dr. Kerstin Dahlgren-Persson, from the IAEA presented a plenary paper on 'Why does safety culture matter?'. The paper discussed the main conclusions of a 1998 IAEA conference on shortcomings in safety management. The conference included case studies of TVA, Cooper, Peach Bottom, Millstone, Ontario Hydro, Barsebaeck and Oskarshamn. Common symptoms included insularity; disproportionate focus on technical issues, high initial performance, lack of corporate oversight, changing management direction and cost cutting, repeat problems, and regulatory dissatisfaction. Behind these symptoms was lack of senior utility leadership with the insight, knowledge and ability to manage the unique interaction between the technology, economics, human factors and safety in a changing nuclear environment. Shortcomings relating to the regulator included lack of criteria for when regulatory actions should be taken in response to degradations in safety management, and the inability of some regulators to influence at the senior utility management level. The paper also made the following key points: - Human error is not always symptomatic of a poor safety culture. Effective root cause analysis (such as that carried out for the Columbia accident investigation) is essential to correctly differentiate between situational issues at a point in time and those rooted in organizational culture. - Leaders change culture by holding different assumptions and by making them visible through their words and action. - Regulators should consider how their regulatory strategy influences licensees. For example, a prescriptive strategy can foster a compliance based approach

A multilevel model of patient safety culture: cross-level relationship between organizational culture and patient safety behavior in Taiwan's hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, I-Chi; Ng, Hui-Fuang; Li, Hung-Hui

2012-01-01

As health-care organizations endeavor to improve their quality of care, there is a growing recognition of the importance of establishing a culture of patient safety. The main objective of this study was to investigate the cross-level influences of organizational culture on patient safety behavior in Taiwan's hospitals. The authors measured organizational culture (bureaucratic, supportive and innovative culture), patient safety culture and behavior from 788 hospital workers among 42 hospitals in Taiwan. Multilevel analysis was applied to explore the relationship between organizational culture (group level) and patient safety behavior (individual level). Patient safety culture had positive impact on patient safety behavior in Taiwan's hospitals. The results also indicated that bureaucratic, innovative and supportive organizational cultures all had direct influence on patient safety behavior. However, only supportive culture demonstrated significant moderation effect on the relationship between patient safety culture and patient safety behavior. Furthermore, organizational culture strength was shown correlated negatively with patient safety culture variability. Overall, organizational culture plays an important role in patient safety activities. Safety behaviors of hospital staff are partly influenced by the prevailing cultural norms in their organizations and work groups. For management implications, constructed patient priority from management commitment to leadership is necessary. For academic implications, research on patient safety should consider leadership, group dynamics and organizational learning. These factors are important for understanding the barriers and the possibilities embedded in patient safety. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Safety Culture Activities of HANARO in 2007

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Jong Sup [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2008-05-15

One of the important aims of a management system for nuclear facilities is to foster a strong safety culture. The safety culture activities in HANARO have been continuously conducted to enhance its safe operation. The following activities and events on a safety culture were performed last year; - Seminars and lectures on safety for the 'Nuclear Safety Check Day' every month - Development of safety culture indicators - Development of operational SPIs (Safety Performance Indicators) - Preparation of an e-Learning program for safety education. In this paper, the safety culture activities in HANARO of KAERI are described, and the efforts necessary for a safety improvement are presented.

CORPORATE CULTURE AS A TOOL TO IMPROVE SAFETY CULTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika SUJOVÁ

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of the article is to explain interconnectivity between corporate culture and safety culture, which aim to utilize motivation to prevent work accidents and other unwanted events in an enterprise. The article deals with ways how to improve approaches to Occupational Health & Safety, OH&S, at work place through proper direction of corporate culture. It introduces internal and external determinants of corporate culture, which have a significant effect. The article introduces common features of corporate culture and safety culture as an element of the OH&S management system with emphasis on system effectiveness. The final portion of the article presents the hierarchy of needs model, which may serve as a basis motivating employees to follow safety and health rules at work place.

Safety culture and subcontractor network governance in a complex safety critical project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oedewald, Pia; Gotcheva, Nadezhda

2015-01-01

In safety critical industries many activities are currently carried out by subcontractor networks. Nevertheless, there are few studies where the core dimensions of resilience would have been studied in safety critical network activities. This paper claims that engineering resilience into a system is largely about steering the development of culture of the system towards better ability to anticipate, monitor, respond and learn. Thus, safety culture literature has relevance in resilience engineering field. This paper analyzes practical and theoretical challenges in applying the concept of safety culture in a complex, dynamic network of subcontractors involved in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Finland, Olkiluoto 3. The concept of safety culture is in focus since it is widely used in nuclear industry and bridges the scientific and practical interests. This paper approaches subcontractor networks as complex systems. However, the management model of the Olkiluoto 3 project is to a large degree a traditional top-down hierarchy, which creates a mismatch between the management approach and the characteristics of the system to be managed. New insights were drawn from network governance studies. - Highlights: • We studied a relevant topical subject safety culture in nuclear new build project. • We integrated safety science challenges and network governance studies. • We produced practicable insights in managing safety of subcontractor networks

Methods for safety culture improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sivintsev, Yu.V.

1998-01-01

New IAEA publication concerning the problems of safety assurance covering different aspects beginning from terminology applied and up to concrete examples of well and poor safety culture development at nuclear facilities is discussed. The safety culture is defined as such set of characteristics and specific activities of institutions and individual persons which states that safety problems of a nuclear facility are given the attention determined by their importance as being of highest priority. The statements of the new document have recommended, not mandatory character. It is emphasized that the process of safety culture improvement at nuclear facilities should be integral component of management procedure, not a bolt on extra

Safety culture development at Daya Bay NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Shanming

2001-01-01

From view on Organization Behavior theory, the concept, development and affecting factors of safety culture are introduced. The focuses are on the establishment, development and management practice for safety culture at Daya Bay NPP. A strong safety culture, also demonstrated, has contributed greatly to improving performance at Daya Bay

Developing safety culture-rocket science or common sense?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahn, J.A.

1998-01-01

Despite evidence of significant management contributions to the causes of major accidents, recent events at Millstone Nuclear Power Station in the US and Ontario Hydro in Canada might lead one to conclude that the significance of safety culture, and the role of management in developing and maintaining an appropriate safety culture, is either not being understood or not being taken serious as integral to the safe operation of some complex, high-reliability operations. It is the purpose of this paper to address four aspects of management that are particularly important to safety culture, and to illustrate how development of an appropriate safety culture is more a matter of common sense than rocket science

Developing safety culture-rocket science or common sense?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mahn, J.A.

1998-08-01

Despite evidence of significant management contributions to the causes of major accidents, recent events at Millstone Nuclear Power Station in the US and Ontario Hydro in Canada might lead one to conclude that the significance of safety culture, and the role of management in developing and maintaining an appropriate safety culture, is either not being understood or not being taken serious as integral to the safe operation of some complex, high-reliability operations. It is the purpose of this paper to address four aspects of management that are particularly important to safety culture, and to illustrate how development of an appropriate safety culture is more a matter of common sense than rocket science.

Does the concept of safety culture help or hinder systems thinking in safety?

Science.gov (United States)

Reiman, Teemu; Rollenhagen, Carl

2014-07-01

The concept of safety culture has become established in safety management applications in all major safety-critical domains. The idea that safety culture somehow represents a "systemic view" on safety is seldom explicitly spoken out, but nevertheless seem to linger behind many safety culture discourses. However, in this paper we argue that the "new" contribution to safety management from safety culture never really became integrated with classical engineering principles and concepts. This integration would have been necessary for the development of a more genuine systems-oriented view on safety; e.g. a conception of safety in which human, technological, organisational and cultural factors are understood as mutually interacting elements. Without of this integration, researchers and the users of the various tools and methods associated with safety culture have sometimes fostered a belief that "safety culture" in fact represents such a systemic view about safety. This belief is, however, not backed up by theoretical or empirical evidence. It is true that safety culture, at least in some sense, represents a holistic term-a totality of factors that include human, organisational and technological aspects. However, the departure for such safety culture models is still human and organisational factors rather than technology (or safety) itself. The aim of this paper is to critically review the various uses of the concept of safety culture as representing a systemic view on safety. The article will take a look at the concepts of culture and safety culture based on previous studies, and outlines in more detail the theoretical challenges in safety culture as a systems concept. The paper also presents recommendations on how to make safety culture more systemic. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regulatory Oversight of Safety Culture in Nuclear Installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-03-01

Experience across the international nuclear industry and in other technical fields over the past few decades has demonstrated the importance of a healthy safety culture in maintaining the safety of workers, the public and the environment. Both regulators and the nuclear industry recognize the need for licensees to develop a strong safety culture in order to support successful and sustainable nuclear safety performance. Progress over recent years can be observed in the rapid development of approaches to overseeing licensees' safety culture. This publication follows on and complements earlier publications on safety culture, from the publication Safety Culture (Safety Series No. 75-INSAG-4 (1991)), published after the Chernobyl accident, to the more recently published Safety Requirements on The Management System for Facilities and Activities (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-R-3 (2006)), which states that the management system is to be used to promote and support a strong safety culture. A number of attempts have been made at both the international and national levels to establish practical approaches to regulatory oversight of safety culture. During 2010 and 2011, two projects were conducted by the IAEA under the scope of the Safe Nuclear Energy - Regional Excellence Programme within the Norwegian Cooperation Programme with Bulgaria and Romania. These projects were implemented at the Bulgarian and Romanian regulatory bodies. They encompassed the development of a specific process to oversee licensees' safety culture, and involved 30 experts from 17 countries and 22 organizations. The IAEA continues to support Member States in the area of safety culture through its projects on safety management and capacity building. This publication addresses the basics of regulatory oversight of safety culture, describes the approaches currently implemented at several regulatory bodies around the world and, based on these examples, proposes a path to developing such a process

Safety culture: a survey of the state-of-the-art

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sorensen, J.N.

2002-01-01

This paper discusses the evolution of the term 'safety culture' and the perceived relationship between safety culture and safety of operations in nuclear power generation and other hazardous technologies. There is a widespread belief that safety culture is an important contributor to safety of operations. Empirical evidence that safety culture and other management and organizational factors influence operational safety is more readily available for the chemical process industry than for nuclear power plant operations. The commonly accepted attributes of safety culture include good organizational communications, good organizational learning, and senior management commitment to safety. Safety culture may be particularly important in reducing latent errors in complex, well-defended systems. The role of regulatory bodies in fostering strong safety cultures remains unclear, and additional work is required to define the essential attributes of safety culture and to identify reliable performance indicators

Factors Contribute to Safety Culture in the Manufacturing Industry in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Ong Choon Hee

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explain the role of safety culture in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia and identify factors contribute to safety culture. It is suggested in this study that leadership support, management commitment and safety management system are important factors that contribute to safety culture. This study also provides theoretical implications to guide future research and offers practical implications to the managers in the development of safety culture. Given that ...

Safety culture management and quantitative indicator evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mandula, J.

2002-01-01

This report discuses a relationship between safety culture and evaluation of quantitative indicators. It shows how a systematic use of generally shared operational safety indicators may contribute to formation and reinforcement of safety culture characteristics in routine plant operation. The report also briefly describes the system of operational safety indicators used at the Dukovany plant. It is a PC database application enabling an effective work with the indicators and providing all users with an efficient tool for making synoptic overviews of indicator values in their links and hierarchical structure. Using color coding, the system allows quick indicator evaluation against predefined limits considering indicator value trends. The system, which has resulted from several-year development, was completely established at the plant during the years 2001 and 2002. (author)

International Safety Management – Safety Management Systems and the Challenges of Changing a Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregory Hanchrow

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Over the past generation, the ISM code has brought forth tremendous opportunities to investigate and enhance the human factor in shipping through the implementation of Safety Management Systems. One of the critical factors to this implementation has been mandatory compliance and a requirement for obtaining a Document of Compliance (DOC for vessels operating globally or at least internationally. A primary objective of these systems is to maintain them as “living” or “dynamic” systems that are always evolving. As the ISM code has evolved, there have been instances where large organizations have opted to maintain a voluntary DOC from their respective class society. This has been accomplished with a large human factor element as typically an organizational culture does not always accept change readily especially if there is not a legal requirement to do so. In other words, when considering maritime training is it possible that organizations may represent cultural challenges? The intent of this paper will be to research large maritime operations that have opted for a document of compliance voluntarily and compare them to similar organizations that have been mandated by international law to do the same. The result should be to gain insight into the human factors that must contribute to a culture change in the organization for the purposes of a legal requirement versus the human factors that contribute to a voluntary establishment of a safety management system. This analysis will include both the executive decision making that designs a system implementation and the operational sector that must execute its implementation. All success and failures of education and training can be determined by the outcome. Did the training achieve its goal? Or has the education prepared the students to embrace a new idea in conjunction with a company goal or a new regulatory scheme? In qualifying the goal of a successful ISM integration by examining both

Developing safety culture in nuclear power engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tevlin, S.A.

2000-01-01

The new issue (no. 11) of the IAEA publications series Safety Reports, devoted to the safety culture in nuclear engineering Safety culture development in the nuclear activities. Practical recommendations to achieve success, is analyzed. A number of recommendations of international experts is presented and basic general indicators of satisfactory and insufficient safety culture in the nuclear engineering are indicated. It is shown that the safety culture has two foundations: human behavior and high quality of the control system. The necessity of creating the confidence by the management at all levels of the enterprise, development of individual initiative and responsibility of the workers, which make it possible to realize the structural hierarchic system, including technical, human and organizational constituents, is noted. Three stages are traced in the process of introducing the safety culture. At the first stage the require,emts of scientific-technical documentation and provisions of the governmental, regional and control organs are fulfilled. At the second stage the management of the organization accepts the safety as an important direction in its activities. At the third stage the organization accomplishes its work, proceeding from the position of constant safety improvement. The general model of the safety culture development is considered [ru

Safety culture in nuclear installations. Guidance for the use in enhancement of safety culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2002-12-01

This guidance has been developed for use in the IAEA Safety Culture Services, which provides support to Member States in their efforts to develop a sound safety culture of their organizations. It will be of particular use in seminars and training workshops that are part of these services. Much of the information in this publication reflects the approach the IAEA has adopted to assist nuclear organizations in Member States in improving their safety culture. This guidance covers topics such as: what is culture, and in particular what is safety culture; what are the stages of development of safety culture, and how you can assess its development using employee surveys; what practices can be used to develop safety culture, and what indicators will help monitor progress. The symptoms of a weakening safety culture are described, as well as the lessons learned from organizations who have experienced safety culture problems. This guide also contains information on how to undertake the process of transforming the existing safety culture, and develop a learning culture in an organization that is based on continuous improvement. The relationship between quality and safety is discussed. The safety culture services offered by the IAEA are also described. The IAEA perspective of safety culture has expanded with time as its understanding of the complexities of the concept developed. The concept of safety culture was first introduced by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group formed by the IAEA. In their report (INSAG-4, 1991) they maintained that the establishment of a safety culture within an organization is one of the fundamental management principles necessary for the safe operation of a nuclear facility. The definition recognized that safety culture is both structural and attitudinal in nature and relates to the organization and its style, as well as to attitudes, approaches and the commitment of individuals at all levels in the organization. In the framework of the

Safety culture in nuclear installations. Guidance for the use in enhancement of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-12-01

This guidance has been developed for use in the IAEA Safety Culture Services, which provides support to Member States in their efforts to develop a sound safety culture of their organizations. It will be of particular use in seminars and training workshops that are part of these services. Much of the information in this publication reflects the approach the IAEA has adopted to assist nuclear organizations in Member States in improving their safety culture. This guidance covers topics such as: what is culture, and in particular what is safety culture; what are the stages of development of safety culture, and how you can assess its development using employee surveys; what practices can be used to develop safety culture, and what indicators will help monitor progress. The symptoms of a weakening safety culture are described, as well as the lessons learned from organizations who have experienced safety culture problems. This guide also contains information on how to undertake the process of transforming the existing safety culture, and develop a learning culture in an organization that is based on continuous improvement. The relationship between quality and safety is discussed. The safety culture services offered by the IAEA are also described. The IAEA perspective of safety culture has expanded with time as its understanding of the complexities of the concept developed. The concept of safety culture was first introduced by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group formed by the IAEA. In their report (INSAG-4, 1991) they maintained that the establishment of a safety culture within an organization is one of the fundamental management principles necessary for the safe operation of a nuclear facility. The definition recognized that safety culture is both structural and attitudinal in nature and relates to the organization and its style, as well as to attitudes, approaches and the commitment of individuals at all levels in the organization. In the framework of the

Analysis of the survey results for the safety culture attitudes of HANARO management division staff

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, M.; Hwang, S. Y.; Lim, I. C.; Kang, T. J.; Choi, H. Y

2003-12-01

This report provides the that analysis results of the surveys on the safety culture attitude and related topics for the HANARO Management Division staff. The survey form consisted of the questionnaire on the safety culture attitude, happiness and life style, drinking habit and traffic safety attitude. The key information drawn from the analysis are as follow; First, the level of safety culture attitude of the staff was confirmed and it was found that the attitude improved when the present analysis results were compared with them for the survey in 1998. Second, the degree of happiness that the staff feel is higher than the average Korean and they enjoy more leisure time than the average Korean. Third, the staff drink more alcohol than the average Korean. Thus, the drinking habit must be improved for the health of the staff. Fourth, the questionnaire of the happiness and the traffic safety attitude should be improved to verify the hypotheses on the relation between them and the safety culture attitude.

Analysis of the survey results for the safety culture attitudes of HANARO management division staff

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, M.; Hwang, S. Y.; Lim, I. C.; Kang, T. J.; Choi, H. Y.

2003-12-01

This report provides the that analysis results of the surveys on the safety culture attitude and related topics for the HANARO Management Division staff. The survey form consisted of the questionnaire on the safety culture attitude, happiness and life style, drinking habit and traffic safety attitude. The key information drawn from the analysis are as follow; First, the level of safety culture attitude of the staff was confirmed and it was found that the attitude improved when the present analysis results were compared with them for the survey in 1998. Second, the degree of happiness that the staff feel is higher than the average Korean and they enjoy more leisure time than the average Korean. Third, the staff drink more alcohol than the average Korean. Thus, the drinking habit must be improved for the health of the staff. Fourth, the questionnaire of the happiness and the traffic safety attitude should be improved to verify the hypotheses on the relation between them and the safety culture attitude

Leadership and Management for Safety. General Safety Requirements (Arabic Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

This Safety Requirements publication establishes requirements that support Principle 3 of the Fundamental Safety Principles in relation to establishing, sustaining and continuously improving leadership and management for safety and an integrated management system. It emphasizes that leadership for safety, management for safety, an effective management system and a systemic approach (i.e. an approach in which interactions between technical, human and organizational factors are duly considered) are all essential to the specification and application of adequate safety measures and to the fostering of a strong safety culture. Leadership and an effective management system will integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human-and-organizational factors, societal and economic elements. The management system will ensure the fostering of a strong safety culture, regular assessment of performance and the application of lessons from experience. The publication is intended for use by regulatory bodies, operating organizations and other organizations concerned with facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks.

Leadership and Management for Safety. General Safety Requirements (Chinese Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

This Safety Requirements publication establishes requirements that support Principle 3 of the Fundamental Safety Principles in relation to establishing, sustaining and continuously improving leadership and management for safety and an integrated management system. It emphasizes that leadership for safety, management for safety, an effective management system and a systemic approach (i.e. an approach in which interactions between technical, human and organizational factors are duly considered) are all essential to the specification and application of adequate safety measures and to the fostering of a strong safety culture. Leadership and an effective management system will integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human-and-organizational factors, societal and economic elements. The management system will ensure the fostering of a strong safety culture, regular assessment of performance and the application of lessons from experience. The publication is intended for use by regulatory bodies, operating organizations and other organizations concerned with facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks.

Leadership and Management for Safety. General Safety Requirements (French Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

This Safety Requirements publication establishes requirements that support Principle 3 of the Fundamental Safety Principles in relation to establishing, sustaining and continuously improving leadership and management for safety and an integrated management system. It emphasizes that leadership for safety, management for safety, an effective management system and a systemic approach (i.e. an approach in which interactions between technical, human and organizational factors are duly considered) are all essential to the specification and application of adequate safety measures and to the fostering of a strong safety culture. Leadership and an effective management system will integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human-and-organizational factors, societal and economic elements. The management system will ensure the fostering of a strong safety culture, regular assessment of performance and the application of lessons from experience. The publication is intended for use by regulatory bodies, operating organizations and other organizations concerned with facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks.

Leadership and Management for Safety. General Safety Requirements (Spanish Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2017-01-01

his Safety Requirements publication establishes requirements that support Principle 3 of the Fundamental Safety Principles in relation to establishing, sustaining and continuously improving leadership and management for safety and an integrated management system. It emphasizes that leadership for safety, management for safety, an effective management system and a systemic approach (i.e. an approach in which interactions between technical, human and organizational factors are duly considered) are all essential to the specification and application of adequate safety measures and to the fostering of a strong safety culture. Leadership and an effective management system will integrate safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human-and-organizational factors, societal and economic elements. The management system will ensure the fostering of a strong safety culture, regular assessment of performance and the application of lessons from experience. The publication is intended for use by regulatory bodies, operating organizations and other organizations concerned with facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks.

Safety culture. Keys for sustaining progress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barraclough, I.; Carnino, A.

1998-01-01

Principles of nuclear safety are now well known and being put into practice around the world, leading to a degree of international harmonization in safety standards. Continued improvement in levels of safety requires the development of a comprehensive 'safety culture' at all levels of an organization, with visible and consistent leadership from senior management. This article reviews the main elements required for establishing and sustaining a good safety culture at nuclear installations that involves staff at all levels

Safety Cultures in Water-Based Outdoor Activities in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andkjær, Søren; Arvidsen, Jan

2015-01-01

In this paper, we report on the study Safe in Nature (Tryg i naturen) in which the aim was to analyze and discuss risk and safety related to outdoor recreation in the coastal regions of Denmark. A cultural perspective is applied to risk management and the safety cultures related to three selected...... water-based outdoor activities: small boat fishing, sea kayaking, and kite surfing. The theoretical framework used was cultural analysis and the methodological approach was mixed methods using case studies with survey and qualitative interviews. The study indicates that safety is a complex matter...... and that safety culture can be understood as the sum and interaction among six categories. The safety culture is closely related to the activity and differs widely among activities. We suggest a broad perspective be taken on risk management wherein risk and safety can be managed at different levels. Small boat...

Applying importance-performance analysis to patient safety culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yii-Ching; Wu, Hsin-Hung; Hsieh, Wan-Lin; Weng, Shao-Jen; Hsieh, Liang-Po; Huang, Chih-Hsuan

2015-01-01

The Sexton et al.'s (2006) safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) has been widely used to assess staff's attitudes towards patient safety in healthcare organizations. However, to date there have been few studies that discuss the perceptions of patient safety both from hospital staff and upper management. The purpose of this paper is to improve and to develop better strategies regarding patient safety in healthcare organizations. The Chinese version of SAQ based on the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation is used to evaluate the perceptions of hospital staff. The current study then lies in applying importance-performance analysis technique to identify the major strengths and weaknesses of the safety culture. The results show that teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition and working conditions are major strengths and should be maintained in order to provide a better patient safety culture. On the contrary, perceptions of management and hospital handoffs and transitions are important weaknesses and should be improved immediately. Research limitations/implications - The research is restricted in generalizability. The assessment of hospital staff in patient safety culture is physicians and registered nurses. It would be interesting to further evaluate other staff's (e.g. technicians, pharmacists and others) opinions regarding patient safety culture in the hospital. Few studies have clearly evaluated the perceptions of healthcare organization management regarding patient safety culture. Healthcare managers enable to take more effective actions to improve the level of patient safety by investigating key characteristics (either strengths or weaknesses) that healthcare organizations should focus on.

The practical implementation of safety culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Touzet, Rodolfo [Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires. (Argentina)

2008-07-01

When, during the review of the Chernobyl accident, the INSAG Committee introduced the term 'Safety Culture', it spread very quickly. Later on, as a result of activities sponsored by the IAEA, the original Safety Culture concept was extended to include a large number of issues that are typical requirements of Quality Assurance Unfortunately, the way in which certain organizations approached this subject has not helped to find the right way for it to be implemented. Safety Culture is not mentioned at all in ICRP-60 and in the new recommendations of 2005 it does not even appear in the principal body and only a minor reference exists. The IAEA's Basic Safety Standards deal with the requirements for Safety Culture and for Quality Assurance as absolutely individual issues; however, Safety Culture should be considered as a part of the Quality System. Very recently the situation was strongly improved by the release of the new standard 'The Management System for Facilities and Activities' Safety Requirements GS-R-3. The EURATOM 97/43 Directive, used in the European Community for the preparation of regulations for medical practice, which, while inspired by ICRP-73, does not even mention Safety Culture. Increasing personnel training is not enough if, at the same time, there are no activities aimed at improving their attitude towards quality and safety. To achieve a change in Culture in the organization or to implant the new concept, there must be a suitable supporting Methodology to allow it to be put into practice. If not, the Safety Culture will only be a simple expression of wishes without any chance of success. Criteria, methodology and effective practical tools must be available. Two basic principles for the management system (GSR-3): a) All the tasks may be considered as 'a system of interactive processes'; b) All persons must take part in order to achieve safety and quality. These two principles are the basis of the strategy for the development of a Safety Culture

The practical implementation of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touzet, Rodolfo

2008-01-01

When, during the review of the Chernobyl accident, the INSAG Committee introduced the term 'Safety Culture', it spread very quickly. Later on, as a result of activities sponsored by the IAEA, the original Safety Culture concept was extended to include a large number of issues that are typical requirements of Quality Assurance Unfortunately, the way in which certain organizations approached this subject has not helped to find the right way for it to be implemented. Safety Culture is not mentioned at all in ICRP-60 and in the new recommendations of 2005 it does not even appear in the principal body and only a minor reference exists. The IAEA's Basic Safety Standards deal with the requirements for Safety Culture and for Quality Assurance as absolutely individual issues; however, Safety Culture should be considered as a part of the Quality System. Very recently the situation was strongly improved by the release of the new standard 'The Management System for Facilities and Activities' Safety Requirements GS-R-3. The EURATOM 97/43 Directive, used in the European Community for the preparation of regulations for medical practice, which, while inspired by ICRP-73, does not even mention Safety Culture. Increasing personnel training is not enough if, at the same time, there are no activities aimed at improving their attitude towards quality and safety. To achieve a change in Culture in the organization or to implant the new concept, there must be a suitable supporting Methodology to allow it to be put into practice. If not, the Safety Culture will only be a simple expression of wishes without any chance of success. Criteria, methodology and effective practical tools must be available. Two basic principles for the management system (GSR-3): a) All the tasks may be considered as 'a system of interactive processes'; b) All persons must take part in order to achieve safety and quality. These two principles are the basis of the strategy for the development of a Safety Culture

Enhancing Safety Culture in Complex Nuclear Industry Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gotcheva, N.

2016-01-01

This paper presents an on-going research project “Management principles and safety culture in complex projects” (MAPS), supported by the Finnish Research Programme on Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2015-2018. The project aims at enhancing safety culture and nuclear safety by supporting high quality execution of complex projects in the nuclear industry. Safety-critical industries are facing new challenges, related to increased outsourcing and complexity in technology, work tasks and organizational structures (Milch and Laumann, 2016). In the nuclear industry, new build projects, as well as modernisation projects are temporary undertakings often carried out by networks of companies. Some companies may have little experience in the nuclear industry practices or consideration of specific national regulatory requirements. In large multinational subcontractor networks, the challenge for assuring nuclear safety arises partly from the need to ensure that safety and quality requirements are adequately understood and fulfilled by each partner. Deficient project management practices and unsatisfactory nuclear safety culture in project networks have been recognised as contributing factors to these challenges (INPO, 2010). Prior evidence indicated that many recent major projects have experienced schedule, quality and financial challenges both in the nuclear industry (STUK, 2011) and in the non-nuclear domain (Ahola et al., 2014; Brady and Davies, 2010). Since project delays and quality issues have been perceived mainly as economic problems, project management issues remain largely understudied in safety research. However, safety cannot be separated from other performance aspects if a systemic view is applied. Schedule and quality challenges may reflect deficiencies in coordination, knowledge and competence, distribution of roles and responsibilities or attitudes among the project participants. It is increasingly understood that the performance of the project network in all

Nuclear Safety Culture & Leadership in Slovenske Elektrarne

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janko, P.

2016-01-01

This presentation shows practically how nuclear safety culture is maintained and assessed in Slovenske elektrarne, supported by human performance program and leadership model. Safety is the highest priority and it must be driven by the Leaders in the field. Human Performance is key to safety and therefore key to our success. Safety Policy of our operating organization—licence holder, is in line with international best practices and nuclear technology is recognised as special and unique. All nuclear facilities adopt a clear safety policy and are operated with overriding priority to nuclear safety, the protection of nuclear workers, the general public and the environment from risk of harm. The focus is on nuclear safety, although the same principles apply to radiological safety, industrial safety and environmental safety. Safety culture is assessed regularly based (every two years) on eight principles for strong safety culture in nuclear utilities. Encourage excellence in all plant activities and to go beyond compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Adopt management approaches embodying the principles of Continuous Improvement and risk Management is never ending activity for us. (author)

Challenges in promoting radiation safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mod Ali, Noriah

2008-01-01

Safety has quickly become an industry performance measure, and the emphasis on its reliability has always been part of a strategic commitment. This paper presents an approach taken by Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) and authority to develop and implement safety culture for industries that uses radioactive material and radiation sources. Maintaining and improving safety culture is a continuous process. There is a need to establish a program to measure, review and audit health and safety performance against predetermined standards. Proper safety audit will help to identify the non-compliance of safety culture as well as the deviation of management, individual and policy level commitment; review of radiation protection program and activities should be preceded. (author)

Defining safety culture and the nexus between safety goals and safety culture. 3. A Methodology for Identifying Deficiencies in Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apostolakis, George; Weil, Rick

2001-01-01

At present, the drivers of performance problems at nuclear power plants (NPPs) are organizational in nature. Organizational deficiencies and other 'latent' conditions cause human errors, resulting in incidents that impact the performance of NPPs. Therefore, the human reliability community, regulators, and others concerned with NPP safety express the view that safety culture and organizational factors play an important role in plant safety. However, we have yet to identify one complete set of organizational factors, establish links between deficient safety culture and performance, or develop adequate tools to measure safety culture. This paper will contribute to the resolution of these issues. Safety culture is not a single factor but rather is a collection of several distinct factors. This paper asserts that in order to pro-actively manage safety culture at NPPs, leading indicators and appropriate measurements must be identified and developed. Central to this effort are the identification of the distinct factors comprising safety culture and the relationships between those factors and performance. We have identified several factors important to safety culture. We have developed a methodology that is a combination of traditional root-cause analysis and theories of human error, most notably Reason's theory of accident causation. In addition to this methodology's usefulness in identifying deficiencies in safety culture, it could also be used as a starting point to identify leading indicators of deteriorating safety performance. We have identified six organizational factors as being important: communication, formalization, goal prioritization, problem identification, roles and responsibilities, and technical knowledge. In addition, we have found that certain organizational factors, although pervasive throughout the organization, have a much greater influence on the successful outcome of particular tasks of work processes, rather than being equally important to all

Safety culture in nuclear installations. Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carnino, A [ed.; International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria); Weimann, G [ed.; Oesterreichisches Forschungszentrum Seibersdorf GmbH (Austria)

1995-04-01

These proceedings of the International Topical Meeting on Safety Culture in Nuclear Installations held in Vienna, Austria from 24 to 28 April 1995 provide a wide forum of information exchange and discussions on the topic safety culture in nuclear power plants. Safety culture deals with human factors since it deals with attitudes, organization and management. It then means that it has a natural component in it which is linked to the national culture and education. There are about 95 contributions, some of them presented by title and abstract only. All of them are in the subject scope of INIS. (Botek).

Safety culture in nuclear installations. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carnino, A.; Weimann, G.

1995-04-01

These proceedings of the International Topical Meeting on Safety Culture in Nuclear Installations held in Vienna, Austria from 24 to 28 April 1995 provide a wide forum of information exchange and discussions on the topic safety culture in nuclear power plants. Safety culture deals with human factors since it deals with attitudes, organization and management. It then means that it has a natural component in it which is linked to the national culture and education. There are about 95 contributions, some of them presented by title and abstract only. All of them are in the subject scope of INIS. (Botek)

Assessment of Safety Culture in Isfahan Hospitals (2010)

OpenAIRE

Raeisi, Ahmed Reza; Nazari, Maryam; Bahmanziari, Najme

2013-01-01

Introduction: Many internal and external risk factors in health care organizations make safety important and it has caused the management to consider safety in their mission statement. One of the most important tools is to establish the appropriate organizational structure and safety culture. The goal: The goal of this research is to inform managers and staff about current safety culture status in hospitals in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health services. Methods: This...

Safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keen, L.J.

2003-01-01

Safety culture has become a topic of increasing interest for industry and regulators as issues are raised on safety problems around the world. The keys to safety culture are organizational effectiveness, effective communications, organizational learning, and a culture that encourages the identification and resolution of safety issues. The necessity of a strong safety culture places an onus on all of us to continually question whether the safety measures already in place are sufficient, and are being applied. (author)

Organizational and safety culture in Canadian intensive care units: relationship to size of intensive care unit and physician management model.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodek, Peter M; Wong, Hubert; Jaswal, Danny; Heyland, Daren K; Cook, Deborah J; Rocker, Graeme M; Kutsogiannis, Demetrios J; Dale, Craig; Fowler, Robert; Ayas, Najib T

2012-02-01

The objectives of this study are to describe organizational and safety culture in Canadian intensive care units (ICUs), to correlate culture with the number of beds and physician management model in each ICU, and to correlate organizational culture and safety culture. In this cross-sectional study, surveys of organizational and safety culture were administered to 2374 clinical staff in 23 Canadian tertiary care and community ICUs. For the 1285 completed surveys, scores were calculated for each of 34 domains. Average domain scores for each ICU were correlated with number of ICU beds and with intensivist vs nonintensivist management model. Domain scores for organizational culture were correlated with domain scores for safety culture. Culture domain scores were generally favorable in all ICUs. There were moderately strong positive correlations between number of ICU beds and perceived effectiveness at recruiting/retaining physicians (r = 0.58; P organizational and safety culture. Differences in perceptions between staff in larger and smaller ICUs highlight the importance of teamwork across units in larger ICUs. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture safety in the nuclear installation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benar Bukit

2008-01-01

Culture safety is aimed to empower all the personnel to contribute and responsible to the installation safety where they work in. Culture safety is important as there were so many accidents happened due to the little attention given to the safety, take as examples of what happened in Three Mille Island installation (1979) and Chernobyl (1986). These remind us that human factor gives a significant contribution to the failure of operational system which influences the safety. Therefore, as one of institutions which has nuclear installation. National Nuclear Energy Agency must apply the culture safety to guarantee the safety operation of nuclear installation to protect the personnel, community and environment from the hazard of radioactive radiation. Culture safety has two main components. The first component under the management responsibility is a framework needed in an organisation. The second component is the personnel attitude in al/ levels to respond and optimize those framework. (author)

Operation of TRR-1/M1 for 25 years and lessons learned in management of safety and safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keinmeesuke, Sirichai

2002-01-01

The first Thai Research Reactor, TRR-1, was installed and put into operation in 1962. In 1975 the reactor was converted to a 2 MW TRIGA Mark III by replacing of the reactor core and the control system. The renamed TRR-1/M1 research reactor went critical again in November 1977. TRR-1/M1 has been operated safely for 25 years with its main utilization in research, isotope production and training. Safety management and safety culture have been implemented for 25 years both in the legislation level and the operation level. There was no nuclear incident and there were a few radiological incidents during the 25 years of operation of TRR-1/M1. The lessons learned from the incident events such as the release of N-16 and Ar-41, the release of radioactive Bromine gave valued opportunities to improve our operation procedure, safety procedure and safety culture. All type of activities with respect to safety culture such as individual awareness, commitment, motivation, supervision and responsibility have been seriously reviewed and being set as normal practices. (author)

Survey Result for the Safety Culture Attitude of HANARO in 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Jong Sup; An, Seok Hwa

2009-01-01

One of the important aims of a nuclear management system is to foster a strong safety culture. The safety culture activities for HANARO have been implemented and the importance of safety management in nuclear activities has also been emphasized since its first operation. HANARO developed its own safety culture indicators by referring to the IAEA's documents for the purpose of the evaluation of the safety culture attitude. In June 2008 a survey on the safety culture was conducted based on the new safety culture indicators. The result of the survey shows that the safety culture activities contribute positively to its safe operation. But it is necessary to encourage some activities like training, resources and organizational culture. The survey was helpful to understand the general trends of the safety attitudes and to set the safety culture activities necessary for the improvement of its safe operation

Assessing progress in the development of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rotaru, Ioan; Ghita, Sorin

1999-01-01

The concept of safety culture was introduced by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) in the Summary Report on the Post-Accident Meeting on the Chernobyl Accident in 1986. The concept was further expanded in the 1988 INSAG-3 report, Basic Safety Principles for Nuclear Power Plants, and again in 1991 in the INSAG-4 report. Recognizing the increasing role that safety culture is expected to play in nuclear installations worldwide, the Convention on Nuclear Safety states the Contracting Parties' desire 'to promote an effective nuclear safety culture'. The concept of safety culture is defined in INSAG-4 as follows: Safety culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance. Safety culture is also an amalgamation of values, standards, morals and norms of acceptable behaviour. These are aimed at maintaining a self disciplined approach to the enhancement of safety beyond legislative and regulatory requirements. Therefore, the safety culture has to be inherent in the thoughts and actions of all the individuals at every level in an organization. The leadership provided by top management is crucial. Safety culture applies to conventional and personal safety as well as nuclear safety. All safety consideration are affected by common points of beliefs, attitudes, behaviour, and cultural differences, closely linked to a shared system of values and standards. The paper poses questions and tries to find answers relative to issues like: - how to assess progress; - specific organizational indicators of a progressive safety culture; - detection of incipient weaknesses in safety culture (organizational issues, employee issues, technology issues); - revitalizing a weakened safety culture; - overall assesment of safety culture; - general evaluation model. In conclusion, there is no consistent and

Human Factors and Safety Culture in Maritime Safety (revised

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heinz Peter Berg

2013-09-01

Full Text Available As in every industry at risk, the human and organizational factors constitute the main stakes for maritime safety. Furthermore, several events at sea have been used to develop appropriate risk models. The investigation on maritime accidents is, nowadays, a very important tool to identify the problems related to human factor and can support accident prevention and the improvement of maritime safety. Part of this investigation should in future also be near misses. Operation of ships is full of regulations, instructions and guidelines also addressing human factors and safety culture to enhance safety. However, even though the roots of a safety culture have been established, there are still serious barriers to the breakthrough of the safety management. One of the most common deficiencies in the case of maritime transport is the respective monitoring and documentation usually lacking of adequacy and excellence. Nonetheless, the maritime area can be exemplified from other industries where activities are ongoing to foster and enhance safety culture.

An approach for risk informed safety culture assessment for Canadian nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, W.R.

2010-01-01

One of the most important components of effective safety and risk management for nuclear power stations is a healthy safety culture. DNV has developed an approach for risk informed safety culture assessment that combines two complementary paradigms for safety and risk management: loss prevention - for preventing and intervening in accidents; and critical function management - for achieving safety and performance goals. Combining these two paradigms makes it possible to provide more robust systems for safety management and to support a healthy safety culture. This approach is being applied to safety culture assessment in partnership with a Canadian nuclear utility. (author)

Assessment of safety culture in isfahan hospitals (2010).

Science.gov (United States)

Raeisi, Ahmed Reza; Nazari, Maryam; Bahmanziari, Najme

2013-01-01

Many internal and external risk factors in health care organizations make safety important and it has caused the management to consider safety in their mission statement. One of the most important tools is to establish the appropriate organizational structure and safety culture. The goal of this research is to inform managers and staff about current safety culture status in hospitals in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health services. This is a descriptive-survey research. The research population was selected hospitals of Isfahan, Iran. Research tool was a questionnaire (Cronbach alpha 0.75). The questionnaire including 93 questions (Likert scale) classified in 12 categories: Demographic questions, Individual attitude, management attitude, Safety Training, Induced stress, pressure and emotional conditions during work, Consultation and participation, Communications, Monitoring and control, work environment, Reporting, safety Rules, procedures and work instructions that distributed among 45 technicians, 208 Nurses and 62 Physicians. All data collected from the serve was analysis with statistical package of social science (SPSS). In this survey Friedman test, Spearman correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and factor analysis have been used for data analyzing. The score of safety culture dimensions was 2.90 for Individual attitude, 3.12 for management attitude, 3.32 for Safety Training, 3.14 for Induced stress, pressure and emotional conditions during work, 3.31 for Consultation and participation, 2.93 for Communications, 3.28 for Monitoring and control, 3.19 for work environment, 3.36 for Reporting, 3.59 safety Rules, procedures and work instructions that Communication and individual attitude were in bad condition. Safety culture among different hospitals: governmental and educational, governmental and non-educational and non-governmental and different functional groups (physicians, nurses, diagnostic) of studied hospitals showed no

IAEA/SiP senior managers workshop on international promotion of safety culture for the NPPs with RBMK reactors. Working material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

The IAEA/SiP Senior Managers Workshop on International Promotion of Safety Culture for the NPPs with RMBK reactors was organized in the frame of the IAEA Technical Cooperation Regional Project RER/9/035 and the IAEA Extrabudgetary Project on WWER and RBMK Safety in co-operation with Swedish International Project Nuclear Safety (SiP). It took place at the Forsmark NPP, Sweden, from 1 to 4 October 1996. The objectives of the workshop were to provide a forum for senior managers to exchange national and international experience on factors influencing safety culture, to better understand these factors and to further enhance promotion of safety culture. Twenty-three specialists participated in the workshop from six countries (Canada, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Ukraine and USA) and from two international organizations (WANO, EC-G24 coordination). Participants were from regulatory bodies, ministries and operational organizations of respective countries. The INSAG-4 definition of safety culture was taken as a starting point for the discussions, but at the start of the workshop participants did not seem to have the same understanding of what is contained in the safety culture context. Specifically the difference between measures taken to improve safety and establishing a proper safety culture level was discussed with useful results. Some participants proposed quantitative safety culture indicators, but there was no agreement at this stage about how to define them. Refs

IAEA/SiP senior managers workshop on international promotion of safety culture for the NPPs with RBMK reactors. Working material

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-12-31

The IAEA/SiP Senior Managers Workshop on International Promotion of Safety Culture for the NPPs with RMBK reactors was organized in the frame of the IAEA Technical Cooperation Regional Project RER/9/035 and the IAEA Extrabudgetary Project on WWER and RBMK Safety in co-operation with Swedish International Project Nuclear Safety (SiP). It took place at the Forsmark NPP, Sweden, from 1 to 4 October 1996. The objectives of the workshop were to provide a forum for senior managers to exchange national and international experience on factors influencing safety culture, to better understand these factors and to further enhance promotion of safety culture. Twenty-three specialists participated in the workshop from six countries (Canada, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Sweden, Ukraine and USA) and from two international organizations (WANO, EC-G24 coordination). Participants were from regulatory bodies, ministries and operational organizations of respective countries. The INSAG-4 definition of safety culture was taken as a starting point for the discussions, but at the start of the workshop participants did not seem to have the same understanding of what is contained in the safety culture context. Specifically the difference between measures taken to improve safety and establishing a proper safety culture level was discussed with useful results. Some participants proposed quantitative safety culture indicators, but there was no agreement at this stage about how to define them. Refs.

Analysis of safety culture components based on site interviews

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ueno, Akira; Nagano, Yuko; Matsuura, Shojiro

2002-01-01

Safety culture of an organization is influenced by many factors such as employee's moral, safety policy of top management and questioning attitude among site staff. First this paper analyzes key factors of safety culture on the basis of site interviews. Then the paper presents a safety culture composite model and its applicability in various contexts. (author)

Stringent cost management and preservation of safety culture, a contradiction?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petersen, Klaus; Pamme, H.

2002-01-01

Full text: Competition in the deregulated electricity market does not leave nuclear power plants unaffected. Hence the question is to answer, whether the safety is going to suffer under the cost pressure on the market. Therefore the target of NPP operator's cost management is to run plants at maximum availability and with optimized cost structures that lead to minimized specific generating costs. The c osts of safety , with their fixed-cost character, are elements of this cost structure. The process of economic optimization of the cost structure does not permit cost minimization on its own sake in the area of operation cost and fuel cost (front and back end). The basis of economical assessment rather must be the minimization of potential risks which could entail losses of availability. However, many investments like plant modifications or preventive maintenance efforts made in order to avoid losses of availability to a large extent also imply at least a preservation or even higher levels of safety. Thus, economic efficiency and safety are closely correlated. Public opinion is very sensible as soon as the high level of plant safety seems to be touched by economic pressure. But realizing that German NPP are endowed with mature design and safety features, improvements of safety standards can only marginally be increased by further technical optimizations. Therefore plant management, man-machine-interface and the individual behaviour of the employees are targets for improvement of nuclear safety and economic efficiency by increasing the efficiency of processes. An even more efficient use of scarce funds and a tolerable political environment should allow the safety level of NPP to be upheld, and safety culture could be maintained and even be improved. (author)

Evaluation of Safety Culture Implementation and Socialization Results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Situmorang, Johnny

2003-01-01

Evaluation of safety culture implementation and socialization results has been perform. Evaluation is carried out with specifying safety culture indicators, namely: Meeting between management and employee, system for incidents analysis, training activities related to improving safety, meeting with regulator, contractors, surveys on behavioural attitudes, and resources allocated to promote safety culture. Evaluation is based on observation and visiting the facilities to show the compliance indicator in term of good practices in the frame of safety culture implementation. For three facilities of research reactors, Kartini Yogyakarta, TRIGA Mark II Bandung and MPR-GAS Serpong, implementation of safety culture is considered good enough and progressive. Furthermore some indicator should be considered more intensive, for example the allocated resources, self assesment based on own questionnaire in the frame of improving the safety culture implementation. (author)

Identifying organizational cultures that promote patient safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Singer, Sara J; Falwell, Alyson; Gaba, David M; Meterko, Mark; Rosen, Amy; Hartmann, Christine W; Baker, Laurence

2009-01-01

Safety climate refers to shared perceptions of what an organization is like with regard to safety, whereas safety culture refers to employees' fundamental ideology and orientation and explains why safety is pursued in the manner exhibited within a particular organization. Although research has sought to identify opportunities for improving safety outcomes by studying patterns of variation in safety climate, few empirical studies have examined the impact of organizational characteristics such as culture on hospital safety climate. This study explored how aspects of general organizational culture relate to hospital patient safety climate. In a stratified sample of 92 U.S. hospitals, we sampled 100% of senior managers and physicians and 10% of other hospital workers. The Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations and the Zammuto and Krakower organizational culture surveys measured safety climate and group, entrepreneurial, hierarchical, and production orientation of hospitals' culture, respectively. We administered safety climate surveys to 18,361 personnel and organizational culture surveys to a 5,894 random subsample between March 2004 and May 2005. Secondary data came from the 2004 American Hospital Association Annual Hospital Survey and Dun & Bradstreet. Hierarchical linear regressions assessed relationships between organizational culture and safety climate measures. Aspects of general organizational culture were strongly related to safety climate. A higher level of group culture correlated with a higher level of safety climate, but more hierarchical culture was associated with lower safety climate. Aspects of organizational culture accounted for more than threefold improvement in measures of model fit compared with models with controls alone. A mix of culture types, emphasizing group culture, seemed optimal for safety climate. Safety climate and organizational culture are positively related. Results support strategies that promote group orientation and

On the role of safety culture in risk-informed regulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sorensen, J.N.; Apostolakis, G.E.; Powers, D.A.

2000-01-01

There is a widespread belief that safety culture is an important contributor to safety of operations. The commonly accepted attributes of safety culture include good organizational communications, good organizational learning, and senior management commitment to safety. Safety culture may be particularly important in reducing latent errors in complex, well-defended systems. The role of regulatory bodies in fostering strong safety cultures remains unclear, and additional work is required to define the essential attributes of safety culture and to identify reliable performance indicators. (author)

Safety culture: analysis of the causal relationships between its key dimensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Muñiz, Beatriz; Montes-Peón, José Manuel; Vázquez-Ordás, Camilo José

2007-01-01

Several fields are showing increasing interest in safety culture as a means of reducing accidents in the workplace. The literature shows that safety culture is a multidimensional concept. However, considerable confusion surrounds this concept, about which little consensus has been reached. This study proposes a model for a positive safety culture and tests this on a sample of 455 Spanish companies, using the structural equation modeling statistical technique. Results show the important role of managers in the promotion of employees' safe behavior, both directly, through their attitudes and behaviors, and indirectly, by developing a safety management system. This paper identifies the key dimensions of safety culture. In addition, a measurement scale for the safety management system is validated. This will assist organizations in defining areas where they need to progress if they wish to improve their safety. Also, we stress that managers need to be wholly committed to and personally involved in safety activities, thereby conveying the importance the firm attaches to these issues.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS ONE OF THE MAIN FACTORS FOR THE SUCCESSFUL SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Snežana Živković

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The goal of this research is to establish the influence of organizational culture on the system of safety and health at work. The research sample included 556 respondents of various activities in Russia. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there is a statistically significant connection of the Attitude towards occupational safety with 5 out of 7 aspects of organizational culture, as well as with the general factor of Usefulness of the manner of management. In addition, there is a statistically significant connection to age, total years of service and qualifications. Through a comparative analysis of results acquired in the Republic of Serbia and Russia, differences in attitudes towards safety and health activities at work were acquired i.e. there is a difference between the average answers of respondents from Serbia and Russia in the Attitude towards occupational safety which is on average slightly more prominent in respondents from Serbia. In relation to organizational culture aspects, there are differences in Vision, Credibility, Feedback and recognition as well as Responsibility. Respondents from Serbia have higher average values on all these measures, but all the differences are small (all effect sizes are below 0.2.

Safety goals and safety culture opening plenary. 1. WANO's Role in Maintaining and Improving Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsutsumi, Ryosuke

2001-01-01

Over the past several years, operators of the world's nuclear plants have compiled an increasingly impressive record of operational performance. Among the many factors that have led to this improvement are the unprecedented cooperation and information exchange among the world's nuclear operators. This paper presents the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) operating experience program and WANO peer review program as examples of the kinds of interaction that are occurring around the globe to maintain and improve the nuclear safety culture. In addition, some unique features of WANO are discussed. WANO has established four programs to help its members communicate effectively with each other. These include the exchange of operating experiences, voluntary peer reviews, professional and technical development, and technical support and exchange. The operating experience program alerts members to events that have occurred at other NPPs and enables members to take appropriate actions to prevent event recurrence. When an event occurs at a plant, management at that plant analyses the event and completes an event report, which is then sent to the WANO regional center to which the plant belongs. After a regional center review and necessary iteration, the report is posted onto the WANO Web site to make it available to all WANO members. By the end of 2000, more than 1500 event reports had been posted. The WANO Peer Review Program is a unique opportunity for members to learn and share the best worldwide insights into safe and reliable nuclear operations. The peer review program has become one of WANO's most important activities containing all essential elements of WANO's mission. A WANO peer review team consists of 15 to 16 people with NPP experience; most team members are from countries outside the one that they are visiting. These teams of peers from plants around the world visit host plants upon request to identify strengths and areas for improvement, with a strong

Safety culture in Ignalina NPP, regulatory view

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maksimovas, G [VATESI (Lithuania)

1997-09-01

The presentation describes how success on the way to a high level Safety Culture in Ignalina NPP may be achieved by daily, well motivated activities with good attitude and proper management participation, ensuring the development and proper implementation of Safety Culture principles within the activities of Operational organization of Ignalina NPP.

Safety culture in Ignalina NPP, regulatory view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maksimovas, G.

1997-01-01

The presentation describes how success on the way to a high level Safety Culture in Ignalina NPP may be achieved by daily, well motivated activities with good attitude and proper management participation, ensuring the development and proper implementation of Safety Culture principles within the activities of Operational organization of Ignalina NPP

Safety culture competition - expectations of a regulatory authority

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keil, D.; Gloeckle, W.

2000-01-01

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on April 26, 1986 influenced the development of reactor safety and promulgated two basic concepts especially in Germany. On the one hand, extensive measures of in-plant accident management have greatly reduced the so-called residual risk. On the other hand, a comprehensive safety approach has been initiated which comprises the nuclear power plant as a system together with people, technology, and organization and also includes safety culture. In a modern regulatory concept based on the dynamic development of safety, the authority's classical regulatory function of controlling is supplemented by the objective of promoting safety. While preserving the division of responsibilities between the regulatory authority and plant operators, the authority uses 'constructive critical dialog' as a tool to enhance safety. Besides the regulatory assessment of safety culture on the basis of indications or indicators, also the continuous promotion of safety culture in a dialog with plant operators is seen as one of the duties of a regulatory authority. Continued efforts are necessary to maintain the high level of safety culture in German nuclear power plants. Operators are expected to establish a safety management which assigns top priority to safety issues, and which pursues the goal of supervising and promoting safety culture. Developments on the deregulated electricity markets must not lead to safety aspects ranking second to economic aspects. Moreover, also under changed boundary conditions, only the safe operation of nuclear power plants ensures economic viability. (orig.) [de

Variability of patient safety culture in Belgian acute hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Vlayen, Annemie; Schrooten, Ward; Wami, Welcome; Aerts, Marc; Barrado, Leandro Garcia; Claes, Neree; Hellings, Johan

2015-06-01

The aim of this study was to measure differences in safety culture perceptions within Belgian acute hospitals and to examine variability based on language, work area, staff position, and work experience. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was distributed to hospitals participating in the national quality and safety program (2007-2009). Hospitals were invited to participate in a comparative study. Data of 47,136 respondents from 89 acute hospitals were used for quantitative analysis. Percentages of positive response were calculated on 12 dimensions. Generalized estimating equations models were fitted to explore differences in safety culture. Handoffs and transitions, staffing, and management support for patient safety were considered as major problem areas. Dutch-speaking hospitals had higher odds of positive perceptions for most dimensions in comparison with French-speaking hospitals. Safety culture scores were more positive for respondents working in pediatrics, psychiatry, and rehabilitation compared with the emergency department, operating theater, and multiple hospital units. We found an important gap in safety culture perceptions between leaders and assistants within disciplines. Administration and middle management had lower perceptions toward patient safety. Respondents working less than 1 year in the current hospital had more positive safety culture perceptions in comparison with all other respondents. Large comparative databases provide the opportunity to identify distinct high and low scoring groups. In our study, language, work area, and profession were identified as important safety culture predictors. Years of experience in the hospital had only a small effect on safety culture perceptions.

Product Safety Culture: A New Variant of Safety Culture?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suhanyiova, L.; Flin, R.; Irwin, A.

2016-01-01

Product safety culture is a new research area which concerns user safety rather than worker or process safety. The concept appears to have emerged after the investigation into the Nimrod aircraft accident (Haddon-Cave, 2009) which echoed aspects of NASA’s Challenger and Columbia crashes. In these cases, through a blend of human and organizational failures, the culture deteriorated to the extent of damaging product integrity, resulting in user fatalities. Haddon-Cave noted that it was due to a failure in leadership and organizational safety culture that accidents such as the Nimrod happened, where the aircraft exploded due to several serious technical failures, preceded by deficiencies in the safety case. Now some organizations are starting to measure product safety culture. This is important in day-to-day life as well, where a product failure as a result of poor organizational safety culture, can cause user harm or death, as in the case of Takata airbags scandal in 2015. Eight people have lost their lives and many were injured. According to investigation reports this was due to the company’s safety malpractices of fixing faulty airbags and proceeding to install them in vehicles, as well as secretly conducting tests to assess the integrity of their product and then deleting the data and denying safety issues as a result of the company’s cost-cutting policies. As such, organizational culture, specifically the applications of safety culture, can have far-reaching consequences beyond the workplace of an organization.

Managing nuclear safety at Point Lepreau

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paciga, J [New Brunswick Power, Point Lepreau NGS, PQ (Canada)

1997-12-01

Managing nuclear safety at Point Lepreau nuclear power plant is described, including technical issues (station aging, definition of the safe operating envelope, design configuration management, code validation, safety analysis and engineering standards); regulatory issues (action items, probabilistic safety assessment, event investigation, periodic safety review, prioritization of regulatory issues, cost benefit assessment); human performance issues (goals and measures, expectations and accountability, supervisory training, safety culture, configuration management, quality of operations and maintenance).

Managing nuclear safety at Point Lepreau

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paciga, J.

1997-01-01

Managing nuclear safety at Point Lepreau nuclear power plant is described, including technical issues (station aging, definition of the safe operating envelope, design configuration management, code validation, safety analysis and engineering standards); regulatory issues (action items, probabilistic safety assessment, event investigation, periodic safety review, prioritization of regulatory issues, cost benefit assessment); human performance issues (goals and measures, expectations and accountability, supervisory training, safety culture, configuration management, quality of operations and maintenance)

Assessing progress in the development of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rotaru, I.; Ghita, S.; Biro, L.

2002-01-01

This paper is focussed on the organizational culture and learning processes required for the implementation of all aspects of safety culture. There is no prescriptive formula for improving safety culture. However, some common characteristics and practices are emerging that can be adopted by organizations in order to make progress. The paper refers to some approaches that have been successful in a number of countries. The experience of the international nuclear industry in the development and improvement of safety culture could be extended and found useful in other nuclear activities, irrespective of scale. The examples given of specific practice cover a wide range of activities including analysis of events, the regulatory approach on safety culture, employee participation and safety performance measures. Many of these practices may be relevant to smaller organizations and could contribute to improving safety culture, whatever the size of the organization. The most effective approach is to pursue a range of practices that can be mutually supportive in the development of a progressive safety culture, supported by professional standards, organizational and management commitment. Some guidance is also given on the assessment of safety culture and on the detection of a weakening safety culture. Few suggestions for accelerating the safety culture development and improvement process are also provided. (author)

Safety Culture & Beliefs in the Nuclear Industry: Looking Forward, Looking Back

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cox, S.

2016-01-01

This Keynote considers the role that the notion of safety culture has played in management of safety in the nuclear industry over recent decades. It does so through the lens of the industry’s beliefs about how such a notion might be applied to better understanding and preventing safety failures. Over the last 30 years, the nuclear industry has come to accept both the concept of safety culture and the possible role that it might play in safety management and safety failure. This development is to be welcomed in general terms but is not without its shortcomings in practice. These largely concern the operationalization of the concept and the way that it is often measured and managed. So what are the issues around the way that much of the industry currently believes that the notion of safety should be applied? The Keynote addresses this question. In doing so, it explores the changes that might be necessary for a fair test of the utility of safety culture in determining the quality of safety management and performance. The final point raised in this Keynote, is fundamental but missed by some. However cast, measured and managed, the concept of safety culture was never promoted as the sole determinant of safety management or the sole reason for safety failure. Therefore, judging the utility of the concept in relation to the quality of safety management in the nuclear industry can only be done logically in the context of those of the other factors involved. (author)

A total safety management model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obadia, I.J.; Vidal, M.C.R.; Melo, P.F.F.F.

2002-01-01

In nuclear organizations, quality and safety are inextricably linked. Therefore, the search for excellence means reaching excellence in nuclear safety. The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, developed, after the Chernobyl accident, the organizational approach for improving nuclear safety based on the safety culture, which requires a framework necessary to provide modifications in personnel attitudes and behaviors in situations related to safety. This work presents a Total Safety Management Model, based on the Model of Excellence of the Brazilian Quality Award and on the safety culture approach, which represents an alternative to this framework. The Model is currently under validation at the Nuclear Engineering Institute, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the results of its initial safety culture self assessment are also presented and discussed. (author)

Producing health, producing safety. Developing a collective safety culture in radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nascimento, Adelaide

2009-01-01

This research thesis aims at a better understanding of safety management in radiotherapy and at proposing improvements for patient safety through the development of a collective safety culture. A first part presents the current context in France and abroad, addresses the transposition of other safety methods to the medical domain, and discusses the peculiarities of radiotherapy in terms of risks and the existing quality-assurance approaches. The second part presents the theoretical framework by commenting the intellectual evolution with respect to system safety and the emergence of the concept of safety culture, and by presenting the labour collective aspects and their relationship with system safety. The author then comments the variety of safety cultures among the different professions present in radiotherapy, highlights the importance of the collective dimension in correcting discrepancies at the end of the treatment process, and highlights how physicians take their colleagues work into account. Recommendations are made to improve patient safety in radiotherapy

Nuclear safety culture and nuclear safety supervision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chai Jianshe

2013-01-01

In this paper, the author reviews systematically and summarizes up the development process and stage characteristics of nuclear safety culture, analysis the connotation and characteristics of nuclear safety culture, sums up the achievements of our country's nuclear safety supervision, dissects the challenges and problems of nuclear safety supervision. This thesis focused on the relationship between nuclear safety culture and nuclear safety supervision, they are essential differences, but there is a close relationship. Nuclear safety supervision needs to introduce some concepts of nuclear safety culture, lays emphasis on humanistic care and improves its level and efficiency. Nuclear safety supervision authorities must strengthen nuclear safety culture training, conduct the development of nuclear safety culture, make sure that nuclear safety culture can play significant roles. (author)

Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes.

Science.gov (United States)

Varmazyar, Sakineh; Mortazavi, Seyed Bagher; Arghami, Shirazeh; Hajizadeh, Ebrahim

2016-01-01

Knowing about organisational safety culture in public transportation system can provide an appropriate guide to establish effective safety measures and interventions to improve safety at work. The aim of this study was investigation of association between safety culture dimensions (leadership styles and company values, usage of crashes information and prevention programmes, management commitment and safety policy, participation and control) with involved self-reported crashes. The associations were considered through Spearman correlation, Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression. The results showed an association among self-reported crashes (occurrence or non-occurrence) and factors including leadership styles and company values; management commitment and safety policy; and control. Moreover, it was found a negative correlation and an odds ratio less than one between control and self-reported crashes.

Safety culture as a matter of regulatory control and regulatory effectiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Camargo, C.T.M.; Furieri, E.B.; Arrieta, L.A.I.; Almeida, C.U.C.

2002-01-01

More than 15 years have passed since the term 'safety culture' was introduced by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG), and although the concept now is widely accepted, practical applications and characteristics have been disseminated mainly for nuclear power plant operating organizations. There is still a lack of international guidance on the use of safety culture as a regulatory matter and on the application of the concept within regulatory organizations. This work explores the meaning of safety culture in two different fields: as an element of safety management systems it shall be a matter of regulatory control; as a complementary tool for quality management it should be used to enhance regulatory effectiveness. Brazilian recent experience on regulating nuclear power reactors provide some examples on how the concept of safety culture may influence regulatory strategies and regulatory management. (author)

A Computer Program for Assessing Nuclear Safety Culture Impact

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han, Kiyoon; Jae, Moosung [Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2014-10-15

Through several accidents of NPP including the Fukushima Daiichi in 2011 and Chernobyl accidents in 1986, a lack of safety culture was pointed out as one of the root cause of these accidents. Due to its latent influences on safety performance, safety culture has become an important issue in safety researches. Most of the researches describe how to evaluate the state of the safety culture of the organization. However, they did not include a possibility that the accident occurs due to the lack of safety culture. Because of that, a methodology for evaluating the impact of the safety culture on NPP's safety is required. In this study, the methodology for assessing safety culture impact is suggested and a computer program is developed for its application. SCII model which is the new methodology for assessing safety culture impact quantitatively by using PSA model. The computer program is developed for its application. This program visualizes the SCIs and the SCIIs. It might contribute to comparing the level of the safety culture among NPPs as well as improving the management safety of NPP.

Measuring Safety Culture on Ships Using Safety Climate: A Study among Indian Officers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yogendra Bhattacharya

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Workplace safety continues to be an area of concern in the maritime industry due to the international nature of the operations. The effectiveness of extensive legislation to manage shipboard safety remains in doubt. The focus must therefore shift towards the human element - seafarers and their perceptions of safety. The study aims to understand the alignment that exists between safety culture and safety climate on board ships as perceived by seafarers. The underlying factors of safety climate were identified using factor analysis which isolated seven factors - Support on Safety, Organizational Support, Resource Availability, Work Environment, Job Demands, ‘Just’ Culture, and Safety Compliance. The perception of safety level of seafarers was found to be low indicating the existence of misalignments between safety culture values and the actual safety climate. The study also reveals that the safety perceptions of officers employed directly by ship owners and those by managers do not differ significantly, nor do they differ between senior and junior officers. A shift in perspective towards how seafarers themselves feel towards safety might provide more effective solutions – instead of relying on regulations - and indeed aid in reducing incidents on board. This paper details practical suggestions on how to identify the factors that contribute towards a better safety climate on board ships.

Patient safety: Safety culture and patient safety ethics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Marlene Dyrløv

2006-01-01

,demonstrating significant, consistent and sometimes large differences in terms of safety culture factors across the units participating in the survey. Paper 5 is the results of a study of the relation between safety culture, occupational health andpatient safety using a safety culture questionnaire survey......Patient safety - the prevention of medical error and adverse events - and the initiative of developing safety cultures to assure patients from harm have become one of the central concerns in quality improvement in healthcare both nationally andinternationally. This subject raises numerous...... challenging issues of systemic, organisational, cultural and ethical relevance, which this dissertation seeks to address through the application of different disciplinary approaches. The main focus of researchis safety culture; through empirical and theoretical studies to comprehend the phenomenon, address...

Safety Culture: Lessons Learned from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffon, M.

2016-01-01

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) investigation of the 2005 BP Texas City Refinery disaster as well as the Baker Panel Report have set the stage for the consideration of human and organizational factors and safety culture as contributing causes of major accidents in the oil and gas industry. The investigation of the BP Texas City tragedy in many ways started a shift in the way the oil and chemical industry sectors looked at process safety and the importance of human and organizational factors in improving safety. Since the BP Texas City incident the CSB has investigated several incidents, including the 2010 Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, where organizational factors and safety culture, once again, were contributing causes of the incidents. In the Texas City incident the CSB found that “while most attention was focused on the injury rate, the overall safety culture and process safety management (PSM) program had serious deficiencies.” The CSB concluded that “safety campaigns, goals, and rewards focused on improving personal safety metrics and worker behaviors rather than on process safety and management safety systems.” The Baker panel, established as a result of a CSB recommendation, did a more extensive review of BPs safety culture. The Baker panel found that ‘while BP has aspirational goals of “no accidents, no harm to people” BP has not provided effective leadership in making certain it’s management and US refining workforce understand what is expected of them regarding process safety performance.’ This may have been in part due to a misinterpretation of positive trends in personal injury rates as an indicator of effective process safety. The panel also found that “at some of its US refineries BP has not established a positive, trusting and open environment with effective lines of communication between management and the workforce, including employee representatives.” In 2010 when the CSB began to

Measuring safety culture: Application of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture to radiation therapy departments worldwide.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Sarah; O'Donovan, Anita

Minimizing errors and improving patient safety has gained prominence worldwide in high-risk disciplines such as radiation therapy. Patient safety culture has been identified as an important factor in reducing the incidence of adverse events and improving patient safety in the health care setting. The aim of distributing the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) to radiation therapy departments worldwide was to assess the current status of safety culture, identify areas for improvement and areas that excel, examine factors that influence safety culture, and raise staff awareness. The safety culture in radiation therapy departments worldwide was evaluated by distributing the HSPSC. A total of 266 participants were recruited from radiation therapy departments and included radiation oncologists, radiation therapists, physicists, and dosimetrists. The positive percent scores for the 12 dimensions of the HSPSC varied from 50% to 79%. The highest composite score among the 12 dimensions was teamwork within units; the lowest composite score was handoffs and transitions. The results indicated that health care professionals in radiation therapy departments felt positively toward patient safety. The HSPSC was successfully applied to radiation therapy departments and provided valuable insight into areas of potential improvement such as teamwork across units, staffing, and handoffs and transitions. Managers and policy makers in radiation therapy may use this assessment tool for focused improvement efforts toward patient safety culture. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Management Systems and Safety Culture in the Nuclear Energy Sector (ISO 9001 & GS-R-3)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smetnik, A.; Murlis, D.

2016-01-01

Nowadays, the enterprises of the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation that provides products and services to foreign customers should rely on the requirements to the management systems established by the IAEA Standard GS-R-3 “The management system for facilities and activities”. This results from the fact that in order to enter foreign markets, Russian suppliers have to meet foreign requirements related to quality assurance, protection of the environment, nuclear and radiation safety, etc. For instance, the Finnish customer “Fennovoima” requires full compliance of the management systems of the Russian companies involved in the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 NPP with the GS-R-3 Standard. ISO 9001 quality management systems were widely implemented in the nuclear industry enterprises in Russia. The assessment of compliance of the quality management systems with the established requirements is carried out by the certification bodies. The same relates to the environmental management systems that are implemented at the majority of nuclear industry facilities in Russia. But due to their uniqueness and associated significant risks, the nuclear industry enterprises have to meet current safety requirements and principles established in the IAEA Safety Standards, such as safety culture and risk management.

Understanding and assessing safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalling, Ian

1997-01-01

The 'Dalling' integrated model of organisational performance is introduced and described. A principal element of this model is culture, which is dynamically contrasted with the five other interacting critical elements, which comprise: the management system, the knowledge base, corporate leadership, stakeholders and consciousness. All six of these principal driving elements significantly influence health, safety, environmental, security, or any other aspect of organisational performance. It is asserted that the elements of organisational performance must be clearly defined and understood if meaningful measurements are to be carried out and sustained progress made in improving the knowledge of organisational performance. AEA Technology's safety culture research programme is then described together with the application of a safety culture assessment tool to organisations in the nuclear, electricity, transport, and oil and gas industries, both within and outside of the United Kingdom. (author)

Association of Safety Culture with Surgical Site Infection Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Caleb J; Pawlik, Timothy M; Daniels, Tania; Vernon, Nora; Banks, Katie; Westby, Peggy; Wick, Elizabeth C; Sexton, J Bryan; Makary, Martin A

2016-02-01

Hospital workplace culture may have an impact on surgical outcomes; however, this association has not been established. We designed a study to evaluate the association between safety culture and surgical site infection (SSI). Using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and National Healthcare Safety Network definitions, we measured 12 dimensions of safety culture and colon SSI rates, respectively, in the surgical units of Minnesota community hospitals. A Pearson's r correlation was calculated for each of 12 dimensions of surgical unit safety culture and SSI rate and then adjusted for surgical volume and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification. Seven hospitals participated in the study, with a mean survey response rate of 43%. The SSI rates ranged from 0% to 30%, and surgical unit safety culture scores ranged from 16 to 92 on a scale of 0 to 100. Ten dimensions of surgical unit safety culture were associated with colon SSI rates: teamwork across units (r = -0.96; 95% CI [-0.76, -0.99]), organizational learning (r = -0.95; 95% CI [-0.71, -0.99]), feedback and communication about error (r = -0.92; 95% CI [-0.56, -0.99]), overall perceptions of safety (r = -0.90; 95% CI [-0.45, -0.99]), management support for patient safety (r = -0.90; 95% CI [-0.44, -0.98]), teamwork within units (r = -0.88; 95% CI [-0.38, -0.98]), communication openness (r = -0.85; 95% CI [-0.26, -0.98]), supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety (r = -0.85; 95% CI [-0.25, -0.98]), non-punitive response to error (r = -0.78; 95% CI [-0.07, -0.97]), and frequency of events reported (r = -0.76; 95% CI [-0.01, -0.96]). After adjusting for surgical volume and ASA classification, 9 of 12 dimensions of surgical unit safety culture were significantly associated with lower colon SSI rates. These data suggest an important role for positive safety and teamwork culture and engaged hospital management in producing high-quality surgical

Safety culture giving impetus to the development of nuclear power enterprise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Ying

2011-01-01

Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC) have been continuously assimilating excellent nuclear safety culture at home and abroad and improving the plant safety operation and internal management level of corporation since the successful construction of Phase I project and the gradual success of the expansion project. Implemented the 'top management 8 expectations', executed the '3 into 1' (quality, environment and occupational health safety) management system. The culture of 'zero tolerance' has been deeply rooted. The safety culture brings people's heart closer, which is not only accepted by the employees, but also climbs up to a higher level and adds momentum to the scientific development of Tianwan Nuclear Power Station Base. (author)

OSART Independent Safety Culture Assessment (ISCA) Guidelines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

Safety culture is understood as an important part of nuclear safety performance. This has been demonstrated by the analysis of significant events such as Chernobyl, Davis Besse, Vandellos II, Asco, Paks, Mihamma and Forsmark, among others. In order to enhance safety culture, one essential activity is to perform assessments. IAEA Safety Standard Series No. GS-R-3, The Management System for Facilitites and Activities, states requirements for continuous improvement of safety culture, of which self, peer and independent safety culture assessments constitute an essential part. In line with this requirement, the Independent Safety Culture Assessment (ISCA) module is offered as an add-on module to the IAEA Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) programme. The OSART programme provides advice and assistance to Member States to enhance the safety of nuclear power plants during commissioning and operation. By including the ISCA module in an OSART mission, the receiving organization benefits from the synergy between the technical and the safety culture aspects of the safety review. The joint operational safety and safety culture assessment provides the organization with the opportunity to better understand the interactions between technical, human, organizational and cultural aspects, helping the organization to take a systemic approach to safety through identifying actions that fully address the root causes of any identified issue. Safety culture assessments provide insight into the fundamental drivers that shape organizational patterns of behaviour, safety consciousness and safety performance. The complex nature of safety culture means that the analysis of the results of such assessments is not as straightforward as for other types of assessment. The benefits of the results of nuclear safety culture assessments are maximized only if appropriate tools and guidance for these assessments is used; hence, this comprehensive guideline has been developed. The methodology explained

Cultural Humility and Hospital Safety Culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Hook, Joshua N; Boan, David; Davis, Don E; Aten, Jamie D; Ruiz, John M; Maryon, Thomas

2016-12-01

Hospital safety culture is an integral part of providing high quality care for patients, as well as promoting a safe and healthy environment for healthcare workers. In this article, we explore the extent to which cultural humility, which involves openness to cultural diverse individuals and groups, is related to hospital safety culture. A sample of 2011 hospital employees from four hospitals completed measures of organizational cultural humility and hospital safety culture. Higher perceptions of organizational cultural humility were associated with higher levels of general perceptions of hospital safety, as well as more positive ratings on non-punitive response to error (i.e., mistakes of staff are not held against them), handoffs and transitions, and organizational learning. The cultural humility of one's organization may be an important factor to help improve hospital safety culture. We conclude by discussing potential directions for future research.

Risk management for drinking water safety in low and middle income countries - cultural influences on water safety plan (WSP) implementation in urban water utilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Omar, Yahya Y; Parker, Alison; Smith, Jennifer A; Pollard, Simon J T

2017-01-15

We investigated cultural influences on the implementation of water safety plans (WSPs) using case studies from WSP pilots in India, Uganda and Jamaica. A comprehensive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews (n=150 utility customers, n=32 WSP 'implementers' and n=9 WSP 'promoters'), field observations and related documents revealed 12 cultural themes, offered as 'enabling', 'limiting', or 'neutral', that influence WSP implementation in urban water utilities to varying extents. Aspects such as a 'deliver first, safety later' mind set; supply system knowledge management and storage practices; and non-compliance are deemed influential. Emergent themes of cultural influence (ET1 to ET12) are discussed by reference to the risk management, development studies and institutional culture literatures; by reference to their positive, negative or neutral influence on WSP implementation. The results have implications for the utility endorsement of WSPs, for the impact of organisational cultures on WSP implementation; for the scale-up of pilot studies; and they support repeated calls from practitioner communities for cultural attentiveness during WSP design. Findings on organisational cultures mirror those from utilities in higher income nations implementing WSPs - leadership, advocacy among promoters and customers (not just implementers) and purposeful knowledge management are critical to WSP success. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development and formation of safety cultures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merry, M.W.J.; Rycraft, H.S.

1995-01-01

The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) is the largest project ever undertaken by British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) and its success is important for the future of the company. The company recognised at the planning stage that to be profitable, THORP had to operate both safely and with a smaller workforce. The establishment of an appropriate culture which saw safety and productivity as essential and complimentary at the beginning of the life of the plant was therefore vital for the future success of THORP The key factors in the THORP Culture formation were : The recruitment policy; the training policy; measures taken to ensure participation from the workforce; teamworking support; communication initiatives; clear statement of cultural principles; clear and demonstrable leadership. The current stage of evolution has seen some positive results namely: A clear commitment to involving all personnel in problem solving and task organisation, including safety; a confident workforce with an improved ability to communicate; the capability of the majority of the workforce to work as a team; safety awareness of the workforce is generally high along with an awareness of environmental, commercial and (political) external issues affecting the THORP business; a commitment to continuous improvement. The development of the safety culture within THORP has also had challenges, some as a result of the composite nature of the workforce, and others as side effects of the culture shaping measures. Management have recognised these, and using the results of attitude surveys, are working with the workforce to overcome their effects. Clear recognition has been achieved that the establishment of positive behaviours is a key. step in generating the culture required summarising, there is recognition that the design of safety management systems and improvement programmes, should be based on the principles of human psychology and behaviour. which includes wide participation by the workforce

Cultivation of nuclear safety culture in Guangdong Nuclear Power Station (GNPS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Wei; Tang Yanzhao

2004-01-01

Probed into the concept and developing phases of safety couture in the management of nuclear power station, especially analyzed the background and the road of cultivating nuclear safety culture in GNPS, highlighted the core concept of GNPS nuclear safety culture, presented GNPS safety culture indicators, summarized the major measures taken by GNPS, depicted the propagandizing process of transparency in GNPS, and systematically appraised the effect of GNPS in implementing nuclear safety culture. (authors)

The determinants of employee participation in occupational health and safety management.

Science.gov (United States)

Masso, Märt

2015-01-01

This article focuses on employee direct participation in occupational health and safety (OHS) management. The article explains what determines employee opportunities to participate in OHS management. The explanatory framework focuses on safety culture and safety management at workplaces. The framework is empirically tested using Estonian cross-sectional, multilevel data of organizations and their employees. The analysis indicates that differences in employee participation in OHS management in the Estonian case could be explained by differences in OHS management practices rather than differences in safety culture. This indicates that throughout the institutional change and shift to the European model of employment relations system, change in management practices has preceded changes in safety culture which according to theoretical argument is supposed to follow culture change.

Culture matters: indigenizing patient safety in Bhutan.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelzang, Rinchen; Johnstone, Megan-Jane; Hutchinson, Alison M

2017-09-01

Studies show that if quality of healthcare in a country is to be achieved, due consideration must be given to the importance of the core cultural values as a critical factor in improving patient safety outcomes. The influence of Bhutan's traditional (core) cultural values on the attitudes and behaviours of healthcare professionals regarding patient care are not known. This study aimed to explore the possible influence of Bhutan's traditional cultural values on staff attitudes towards patient safety and quality care. Undertaken as a qualitative exploratory descriptive inquiry, a purposeful sample of 94 healthcare professionals and managers were recruited from three levels of hospitals, a training institute and the Ministry of Health. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis strategies. The findings of the study suggest that Bhutanese traditional cultural values have both productive and counterproductive influences on staff attitudes towards healthcare delivery and the processes that need to be in place to ensure patient safety. Productive influences encompassed: karmic incentives to avoid preventable harm and promote safe patient care; and the prospective adoption of the 'four harmonious friends' as a culturally meaningful frame for improving understanding of the role and importance of teamwork in enhancing patient safety. Counterproductive influences included: the adoption of hierarchical and authoritative styles of management; unilateral decision-making; the legitimization of karmic beliefs; differential treatment of patients; and preferences for traditional healing practices and rituals. Although problematic in some areas, Bhutan's traditional cultural values could be used positively to inform and frame an effective model for improving patient safety in Bhutan's hospitals. Such a model must entail the institution of an 'indigenized' patient safety program, with patient safety research and reporting systems framed around local

Investigation of radiation safety and safety culture of medical sanitation vocation in Suzhou

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang Bo; Tu Yu; Zhang Yin

2009-01-01

Objective: To investigate the construction of radiation safety and safety culture of medical sanitation vocation in Suzhou. Methods: All medical units registered in administration center of Suzhou were included. The above selected medical units were completely investigated, district and county under the same condition of quality control. Results: The radiation safety and safety culture are existing differences among different property and grade hospitals of medicai sanitation vocation in Suzhou. Conclusion: The construction of radiation safety and safety culture is generally occupying in good level in suhzou, but there are obvious differences among different property and grade hospitals. The main reason for the differences in the importance attached to by the hospital decision-making and department management officials as well as the staff personal. (authors)

Culture of safety. Indicators of culture of safety. Stage of culture of safety. Optimization of radiating protection. Principle of precaution. Principle ALARA. Procedure ALARA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mursa, E.

2006-01-01

Object of research: is the theory and practice of optimization of radiating protection according to recommendations of the international organizations, realization of principle ALARA and maintenance of culture of safety (SC) on the nuclear power plant. The purpose of work - to consider the general aspects of realization of principle ALARA, conceptual bases of culture of safety, as principle of management, and practice of their introduction on the nuclear power plant. The work has the experts' report character in which the following questions are presented: The recommendations materials of the IAEA and other international organizations have been assembled, systematized and analyzed. The definitions, characteristics and universal SC features, and also indicators as a problem of parameters and quantitative SC measurements are described in details advanced. The ALARA principles - principle of precaution; not acceptance of zero risk; choice of a principle ALARA; model of acceptable radiation risk are described. The methodology of an estimation of culture of safety level and practical realization of the ALARA principle in separate organization is shown on a practical example. The SC general estimation at a national level in Republic of Moldova have been done. Taking into consideration that now Safety Culture politics are introduced only in relation to APS, in this paper the attempt of application of Safety Culture methodology to Radiological Objects have been made (Oncological Institute of the Republic of Moldova and Special Objects No.5101 and 5102 for a long time Storage of the Radioactive Waste). (authors)

Resolving conflicting safety cultures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slider, J.E.; Patterson, M.

1993-01-01

Several nuclear power plant sites have been wounded in the crossfire between two distinct corporate cultures. The traditional utility culture lies on one side and that of the nuclear navy on the other. The two corporate cultures lead to different perceptions of open-quotes safety culture.close quotes This clash of safety cultures obscures a very important point about nuclear plant operations: Safety depends on organizational learning. Organizational learning provides the foundation for a perception of safety culture that transcends the conflict between utility and nuclear navy cultures. Corporate culture may be defined as the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs shared by employees of a given company. Safety culture is the part of corporate culture concerning shared attitudes and beliefs affecting individual or public safety. If the safety culture promotes behaviors that lead to greater safety, employees will tend to open-quotes do the right thingclose quotes even when circumstances and formal guidance alone do not ensure that actions will be correct. Safety culture has become particularly important to nuclear plant owners and regulators as they have sought to establish and maintain a high level of safety in today's plants

Organizational culture and nuclear safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Germann, R.P.

1990-01-01

GPU Nuclear has become increasingly aware of the impact of culture on performance and therefore on nuclear safety. Culture is simply described as the way things are done around here. Senior management has developed a mission and a vision and values statement to guide this culture change. The company has embarked on a number of culture-influencing initiatives, including teamwork and leadership, the subject of this paper. This paper notes the functional initiatives that were one aspect of the evolution of the overall program. These functional initiatives were requests from line managers for assistance from in-house facilitators to help their areas become even more effective. Also, the overall program implementation has evolved to include use of additional materials and concepts

Measuring and benchmarking safety culture: application of the safety attitudes questionnaire to an acute medical admissions unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Relihan, E; Glynn, S; Daly, D; Silke, B; Ryder, S

2009-12-01

To assess the safety culture in an acute medical admissions unit (AMAU) of a teaching hospital in order to benchmark results against international data and guide a unit-based, integrated, risk management strategy. The safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ), a validated instrument for the measurement of safety culture was applied to an AMAU. All AMAU healthcare staff (n = 92) were surveyed: doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants (HCAs) and allied healthcare professionals (AHPs). Safety attitude scores for the overall unit and individual caregiver types were assessed across six domains of safety culture. When compared against an international benchmark, the AMAU scored significantly higher for four of the six safety domains: p < 0.01 for 'teamwork climate', 'safety climate' and 'stress recognition' and p < 0.05 for 'job satisfaction'. The difference between nurse manager scores and the overall mean for the study group was statistically significant for the domains of 'teamwork climate' (p < 0.05) and 'safety climate' (p < 0.01). HCAs scored significantly lower relative to staff overall with regard to 'working conditions' (p < 0.05) and 'perceptions of management' (p < 0.01). The SAQ was successfully applied to an AMAU setting giving a valuable insight into staff issues of concern across the safety spectrum: employee and environmental safety, clinical risk management and medication safety.

Safety culture issues and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahlgren Persson, K.

1999-01-01

indicators, the symptoms and significance of shortcomings and degradation in the safety management processes and safety culture and hence failed to take effective corrective actions at an early stage. Key performance issues such as critical oversight, self assessment processes and effective corrective action programmes were not fully appreciated by senior management even after performance deficiencies were identified by the regulator and other external agencies. The seeming inability of the regulator to influence this senior management level, especially at the early stages of safety performance degradation was a major contributing factor in the continuation of the performance decline to the point that regulatory intervention became a necessity. Recovery processes commonly used a new utility senior management team to kick-start the change process and corresponding regulatory resource increases focused on monitoring the recovery. A comprehensive recovery plan and an interactive relationship with the regulator were deemed essential for a successful recovery. A review of the developing safety culture was a factor considered necessary to ensure sustainability. Public involvement in the regulatory monitoring process helped restore their confidence in the regulator, utility and plant management. The group recommended IAEA continue work to develop guidance for senior corporate management and regulators in this area (author) (ml)

Promoting and assessment of safety culture within regulatory body

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Awasthi, Sumit; Bhattacharya, D.; Koley, J.; Krishnamurthy, P.R.

2015-01-01

Regulators have an important role to play in assisting organizations under their jurisdiction to develop positive safety cultures. It is therefore essential for the regulator to have a robust safety culture as an inherent strategy and communication of this strategy to the organizations it supervises. Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) emphasizes every utility to institute a good safety culture during various stages of a NPP. The regulatory requirement for establishing organisational safety culture within utility at different stages are delineated in the various AERB safety codes which are presented in the paper. Although the review and assessment of the safety culture is a part of AERB’s continual safety supervision through existing review mechanism, AERB do not use any specific indicators for safety culture assessment. However, establishing and nurturing a good safety culture within AERB helps in encouraging the utility to institute the same. At the induction level AERB provides training to its staffs for regulatory orientation which include a specific course on safety culture. Subsequently, the junior staffs are mentored by seniors while involving them in various regulatory processes and putting them as observers during regulatory decision making process. Further, AERB established a formal procedure for assessing and improving safety culture within its staff as a management system process. The paper describes as a case study the above safety culture assessment process established within AERB

Safety Culture Evaluation at Research Reactors of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qamar, M.A.; Saeed, A.; Shah, J.H.

2016-01-01

The concept of safety culture was presented by IAEA in document INSAG-4 (1991), delineated as “assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establish that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance”. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evaluation of safety culture at research reactors of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Evaluating the safety culture of a particular organization poses some challenges which can be resolved by using safety culture evaluation models like those of Sachein (1992) and Harber-Barrier(1998). In PAEC, safety culture is the integral part of management system which not only promotes safety culture throughout the organization but also enhances its significance. To strengthen the safety culture, PAEC is also participating in a number of international and regional meetings of IAEA regarding safety culture. PAEC and the national regulator Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) are also arranging workshops, peer reviews, sharing operational experiences and interacting with IAEA missions to enhance its capabilities in the field of safety culture. The Directorate General of Safety (DOS) is a corporate office of PAEC for safety and regulatory matters. DOS is in the process of implementing a program to evaluate safety culture at nuclear installations of PAEC to ensure that safety culture is included as a vital segment of the Integral Management System of the establishment. In this regard, training sessions and lectures on safety culture evaluation are normally conducted in PAEC for awareness and enhancement of the safety culture program. Safety culture is also addressed in PNRA Regulations like PAK-909 and PAK-913. In this paper we will focus on the safety culture evaluation in our research reactors, i.e., PARR-1 and PARR-2. The evaluation results will be based on observations, interviews of employees, group discussions

Exploring relationships between hospital patient safety culture and Consumer Reports safety scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Scott Alan; Yount, Naomi; Sorra, Joann

2017-02-16

A number of private and public companies calculate and publish proprietary hospital patient safety scores based on publicly available quality measures initially reported by the U.S. federal government. This study examines whether patient safety culture perceptions of U.S. hospital staff in a large national survey are related to publicly reported patient safety ratings of hospitals. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (Hospital SOPS) assesses provider and staff perceptions of hospital patient safety culture. Consumer Reports (CR), a U.S. based non-profit organization, calculates and shares with its subscribers a Hospital Safety Score calculated annually from patient experience survey data and outcomes data gathered from federal databases. Linking data collected during similar time periods, we analyzed relationships between staff perceptions of patient safety culture composites and the CR Hospital Safety Score and its five components using multiple multivariate linear regressions. We analyzed data from 164 hospitals, with patient safety culture survey responses from 140,316 providers and staff, with an average of 856 completed surveys per hospital and an average response rate per hospital of 56%. Higher overall Hospital SOPS composite average scores were significantly associated with higher overall CR Hospital Safety Scores (β = 0.24, p Consumer Reports Hospital Safety Score, which is a composite of patient experience and outcomes data from federal databases. As hospital managers allocate resources to improve patient safety culture within their organizations, their efforts may also indirectly improve consumer-focused, publicly reported hospital rating scores like the Consumer Reports Hospital Safety Score.

Safety Culture Monitoring: How to Assess Safety Culture in Real Time?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zronek, B.; Maryska, J.; Treslova, L.

2016-01-01

Do you know what is current level of safety culture in your company? Are you able to follow trend changes? Do you know what your recent issues are? Since safety culture is understood as vital part of nuclear industry daily life, it is crucial to know what the current level is. It is common to perform safety culture survey or ad hoc assessment. This contribution shares Temelin NPP, CEZ approach how to assess safety culture level permanently. Using behavioral related outputs of gap solving system, observation program, dedicated surveys, regulatory assessment, etc., allows creating real time safety culture monitoring without the need to perform any other activities. (author)

Leadership and Safety Culture: Leadership for Safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, E.

2016-01-01

Following the challenge to operate Nuclear Power Plants towards operational excellence, a highly skilled and motivated organization is needed. Therefore, leadership is a valuable success factor. On the other hand a well-engineered safety orientated design of NPP’s is necessary. Once built, an NPP constantly requires maintenance, ageing management and lifetime modifications. E.ON tries to keep the nuclear units as close as possible to the state of the art of science and technology. Not at least a requirement followed by our German regulation. As a consequence of this we are continuously challenged to improve our units and the working processes using national and international operational experiences too. A lot of modifications are driven by our self and by regulators. That why these institutions — authorities and independent examiners—contribute significantly to the safety success. Not that it is easy all the day. The relationship between the regulatory body, examiners and the utilities should be challenging but also cooperative and trustful within a permanent dialog. To reach the common goal of highest standards regarding nuclear safety all parties have to secure a living safety culture. Without this attitude there is a higher risk that safety relevant aspects may stay undetected and room for improvement is not used. Nuclear operators should always be sensitized and follow each single deviation. Leaders in an NPP-organization are challenged to create a safety-, working-, and performance culture based on clear common values and behaviours, repeated and lived along all of our days to create a least a strong identity in the staffs mind to the value of safety, common culture and overall performance. (author)

More safety by improving the safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laaksonen, J.

1993-01-01

In its meeting in 1986, after Chernobyl accident, the INSAG group concluded, that the most important reason for the accident was lack of safety culture. Later the group realized that the safety culture, if it is well enough, can be used as a powerful tool to assess and develop practices affecting safety in any country. A comprehensive view on the various aspects of safety culture was presented in the INSAG-4 report published in 1991. Finland was among the first nations include the concept of safety culture in its regulations. This article describes the roles of government and the regulatory body in creating a national safety culture. How safety culture is seen in the operation of a nuclear power plant is also discussed. (orig.)

An Agent-based Approach for Structured Modeling, Analysis and Improvement of Safety Culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sharpanskykh, O.; Stroeve, S.

2011-01-01

Safety culture is broadly recognized as important for operational safety in various fields, including air traffic management, power plant control and health care. Previous studies addressed characterization and assessment of safety culture extensively. Nevertheless, relations between safety culture

Safety culture in the maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

Safety culture is the complexity of beliefs, shared values and behaviour reflected in making decisions and performing work in a nuclear power plant or nuclear facility. The definition of safety culture and the related concepts presented in the IAEA literature are widely known to experts. Since the publication of Safety Culture, issued by the IAEA as INSAG-4 in 1991, the IAEA has produced a number of publications on strengthening the safety culture in organizations that operate nuclear power plants and nuclear facilities. However, until now the focus has been primarily on the area of operations. Apart from operations, maintenance in plants and nuclear facilities is an aspect that deserves special attention, as maintenance activities can have both a direct and an indirect effect on equipment reliability. Adverse safety effects can arise, depending upon the level of skill of the personnel involved, safety awareness and the complexity of the work process. Any delayed effects resulting from challenges to maintenance can cause interruptions in operation, and hence affect the safety of a plant or facility. Building upon earlier IAEA publications on this topic, this Safety Report reviews how challenges to the maintenance of nuclear power plants can affect safety culture. It also highlights indications of a weakening safety culture. The challenges described are in areas such as maintenance management; human resources management; plant condition assessment and the business environment. The steps that some Member States have taken to address safety culture aspects are detailed and singled out as good practices, with a view to disseminating and exchanging experiences and lessons learned. Although this report is primarily directed at plant maintenance organizations, the subject matter is applicable to a wider audience, including plant contracting organizations and regulatory authorities

Fewer can be More: Nuclear Safety and Security Culture Self-Assessment in the Hungarian Public Ltd. for Radioactive Waste Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horváth, K.; Solymosi, M.; Vass, G.

2016-01-01

The Hungarian regulator and operators show strong commitment towards robust nuclear safety and security culture. The paper discusses the evolution and the basis of the regulation of Hungarian safety and security culture. Because of security considerations nuclear safety incidents have always received and for sure will receive more publicity than malicious acts. That is probably the main reason behind that mostly nuclear safety incidents influence the common beliefs. This kind of primacy is noticeable as well in regulations and also in practice. Although there is a strong connection nuclear safety and security culture, their relationship has not been researched for a long time. The paper also presents an already achieved, combined nuclear safety and security culture survey type assessment. Survey is a well known type of organizational culture self assessment. The applied methods, relationship between these two cultures and of course some difficulties of the process are summarized. The presented method is appropriate to combine different guidance and characteristics to measure different attitude in a single survey. The method in practice is shown through the nuclear safety and security culture assessment conducted at Hungarian Public Ltd. Of Radioactive Waste Management. (author)

Nuclear Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2017-01-01

Ethics is caring about people and Safety is caring that no physical harm comes to people.Therefore Safety is a type of Ethical Behavior. Culture: is The Way We Do Things Here.Safety Culture is mixture of organization traditions, values, attitudes and behaviors modeled by Its leaders and internalized by its members that serve to make nuclear safety the overriding priority. Safety Culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in Organisations and individuals which established that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance

Hospital safety culture in Taiwan: a nationwide survey using Chinese version Safety Attitude Questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Wui-Chiang; Wung, Hwei-Ying; Liao, Hsun-Hsiang; Lo, Chien-Ming; Chang, Fei-Ling; Wang, Pa-Chun; Fan, Angela; Chen, Hsin-Hsin; Yang, Han-Chuan; Hou, Sheng-Mou

2010-08-10

Safety activities have been initiated at many hospitals in Taiwan, but little is known about the safety culture at these hospitals. The aims of this study were to verify a safety culture survey instrument in Chinese and to assess hospital safety culture in Taiwan. The Taiwan Patient Safety Culture Survey was conducted in 2008, using the adapted Safety Attitude Questionnaire in Chinese (SAQ-C). Hospitals and their healthcare workers participated in the survey on a voluntary basis. The psychometric properties of the five SAQ-C dimensions were examined, including teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, perception of management, and working conditions. Additional safety measures were asked to assess healthcare workers' attitudes toward their collaboration with nurses, physicians, and pharmacists, respectively, and perceptions of hospitals' encouragement of safety reporting, safety training, and delivery delays due to communication breakdowns in clinical areas. The associations between the respondents' attitudes to each SAQ-C dimension and safety measures were analyzed by generalized estimating equations, adjusting for the clustering effects at hospital levels. A total of 45,242 valid questionnaires were returned from 200 hospitals with a mean response rate of 69.4%. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.792 for teamwork climate, 0.816 for safety climate, 0.912 for job satisfaction, 0.874 for perception of management, and 0.785 for working conditions. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated a good model fit for each dimension and the entire construct. The percentage of hospital healthcare workers holding positive attitude was 48.9% for teamwork climate, 45.2% for perception of management, 42.1% for job satisfaction, 37.2% for safety climate, and 31.8% for working conditions. There were wide variations in the range of SAQ-C scores in each dimension among hospitals. Compared to those without positive attitudes, healthcare workers with positive attitudes to each SAQ

[Organisational responsibility versus individual responsibility: safety culture? About the relationship between patient safety and medical malpractice law].

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Dieter

2009-01-01

The contribution is concerned with the correlations between risk information, patient safety, responsibility and liability, in particular in terms of liability law. These correlations have an impact on safety culture in healthcare, which can be evaluated positively if--in addition to good quality of medical care--as many sources of error as possible can be identified, analysed, and minimised or eliminated by corresponding measures (safety or risk management). Liability influences the conduct of individuals and enterprises; safety is (probably) also a function of liability; this should also apply to safety culture. The standard of safety culture does not only depend on individual liability for damages, but first of all on strict enterprise liability (system responsibility) and its preventive effects. Patient safety through quality and risk management is therefore also an organisational programme of considerable relevance in terms of liability law.

Correlation of Safety Culture Attributes in Construction Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pervez Shaikh

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The importance of construction industry can not be overemphasized because it is one of the biggest contributors toward economic activities of a country. It employs a countable number of workforce and it is prone to accidents, incidents, hazards and disasters, therefore, the safety factor is equally important. The current research explores safety culture in the perspective of its important attributes. The EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management is taken as the bases for finding the ways and means of safety culture improvement of the construction industry. The correlation of pattern of responses is found for every attribute of the safety culture and the interrelationships and strengths are worked out to detect the involvement of the attribute.

Development of a Novel Nuclear Safety Culture Evaluation Method for an Operating Team Using Probabilistic Safety Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han, Sangmin; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

IAEA defined safety culture as follows: 'Safety Culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance'. Also, celebrated behavioral scientist, Cooper, defined safety culture as,'safety culture is that observable degree of effort by which all organizational members direct their attention and actions toward improving safety on a daily basis' with his internal psychological, situational, and behavioral context model. With these various definitions and criteria of safety culture, several safety culture assessment methods have been developed to improve and manage safety culture. To develop a new quantitative safety culture evaluation method for an operating team, we unified and redefined safety culture assessment items. Then we modeled a new safety culture evaluation by adopting level 1 PSA concept. Finally, we suggested the criteria to obtain nominal success probabilities of assessment items by using 'operational definition'. To validate the suggested evaluation method, we analyzed the collected audio-visual recording data collected from a full scope main control room simulator of a NPP in Korea.

Development of a Novel Nuclear Safety Culture Evaluation Method for an Operating Team Using Probabilistic Safety Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Sangmin; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2015-01-01

IAEA defined safety culture as follows: 'Safety Culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance'. Also, celebrated behavioral scientist, Cooper, defined safety culture as,'safety culture is that observable degree of effort by which all organizational members direct their attention and actions toward improving safety on a daily basis' with his internal psychological, situational, and behavioral context model. With these various definitions and criteria of safety culture, several safety culture assessment methods have been developed to improve and manage safety culture. To develop a new quantitative safety culture evaluation method for an operating team, we unified and redefined safety culture assessment items. Then we modeled a new safety culture evaluation by adopting level 1 PSA concept. Finally, we suggested the criteria to obtain nominal success probabilities of assessment items by using 'operational definition'. To validate the suggested evaluation method, we analyzed the collected audio-visual recording data collected from a full scope main control room simulator of a NPP in Korea

Safety culture in nuclear installations: Bangladesh perspectives and key lessons learned from major events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jalil, A.; Rabbani, G.

2002-01-01

Steps necessary to be taken to ensure safety in nuclear installations are suggested. One of the steps suggested is enhancing the safety culture. It is necessary to gain a common understanding of the concept itself, the development stages of safety culture by way of good management practices and leadership for safety culture improvement in the long-term. International topical meetings on safety culture may serve as an important forum for exchange of experiences. From such conventions new initiatives and programmes may crop up which when implemented around the world is very likely to improve safety management and thus boost up the safety culture in nuclear installations. International co-operation and learning are to be prompted to facilitate the sharing of the achievements to face the challenges involved in the management of safety and fixing priorities for future work and identify areas of co-operations. Key lessons learned from some major events have been reported. Present status and future trend of nuclear safety culture in Bangladesh have been dealt with. (author)

Safety in psychiatric inpatient care: The impact of risk management culture on mental health nursing practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Slemon, Allie; Jenkins, Emily; Bungay, Vicky

2017-10-01

The discourse of safety has informed the care of individuals with mental illness through institutionalization and into modern psychiatric nursing practices. Confinement arose from safety: out of both societal stigma and fear for public safety, as well as benevolently paternalistic aims to protect individuals from self-harm. In this paper, we argue that within current psychiatric inpatient environments, safety is maintained as the predominant value, and risk management is the cornerstone of nursing care. Practices that accord with this value are legitimized and perpetuated through the safety discourse, despite evidence refuting their efficacy, and patient perspectives demonstrating harm. To illustrate this growing concern in mental health nursing care, we provide four exemplars of risk management strategies utilized in psychiatric inpatient settings: close observations, seclusion, door locking and defensive nursing practice. The use of these strategies demonstrates the necessity to shift perspectives on safety and risk in nursing care. We suggest that to re-centre meaningful support and treatment of clients, nurses should provide individualized, flexible care that incorporates safety measures while also fundamentally re-evaluating the risk management culture that gives rise to and legitimizes harmful practices. © 2017 The Authors Nursing Inquiry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

KHNP Safety Culture Framework based on Global Standard, and Lessons learned from Safety Culture Evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Younggab; Hur, Nam Young; Jeong, Hyeon Jong

2015-01-01

In order to eliminate the vague fears of the people about the nuclear power and operate continuously NPPs, a strong safety culture of NPPs should be demonstrated. Strong safety culture awareness of workers can overcome social distrust about NPPs. KHNP has been a variety efforts to improve and establish safety culture of NPPs. Safety culture framework applying global standards was set up and safety culture assessment has been carried out periodically to enhance safety culture of workers. In addition, KHNP developed various safety culture contents and they are being used in NPPs by workers. As a result of these efforts, safety culture awareness of workers is changed positively and the safety environment of NPPs is expected to be improved. KHNP makes an effort to solve areas for improvement derived from safety culture assessment. However, there are some areas to take a long time in completing the work. Therefore, these actions are necessary to be carried out consistently and continuously. KHNP also developed recently safety culture enhancement system based on web. All information related to safety culture in KHNP will be shared through this web system and this system will be used to safety culture assessment. In addition to, KHNP plans to develop safety culture indicators for monitoring the symptoms of safety culture weakening

KHNP Safety Culture Framework based on Global Standard, and Lessons learned from Safety Culture Evaluation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Younggab; Hur, Nam Young; Jeong, Hyeon Jong [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

In order to eliminate the vague fears of the people about the nuclear power and operate continuously NPPs, a strong safety culture of NPPs should be demonstrated. Strong safety culture awareness of workers can overcome social distrust about NPPs. KHNP has been a variety efforts to improve and establish safety culture of NPPs. Safety culture framework applying global standards was set up and safety culture assessment has been carried out periodically to enhance safety culture of workers. In addition, KHNP developed various safety culture contents and they are being used in NPPs by workers. As a result of these efforts, safety culture awareness of workers is changed positively and the safety environment of NPPs is expected to be improved. KHNP makes an effort to solve areas for improvement derived from safety culture assessment. However, there are some areas to take a long time in completing the work. Therefore, these actions are necessary to be carried out consistently and continuously. KHNP also developed recently safety culture enhancement system based on web. All information related to safety culture in KHNP will be shared through this web system and this system will be used to safety culture assessment. In addition to, KHNP plans to develop safety culture indicators for monitoring the symptoms of safety culture weakening.

Safety culture in nuclear power plants. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-12-01

As a consequence of the INSAG-4 report on 'safety culture', published by the IAEA in 1991, the Federal Commission for the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants (KSA) decided to hold a one-day seminar as a first step in this field. The KSA is an advisory body of the Federal Government and the Federal Department of Transport and Energy (EVED). It comments on applications for licenses, observes the operation of nuclear power plants, assists with the preparation of regulations, monitors the progress of research in the field of nuclear safety, and makes proposals for research tasks. The objective of this seminar was to familiarise the participants with the principles of 'safety culture', with the experiences made in Switzerland and abroad with existing concepts, as well as to eliminate existing prejudices. The main points dealt with at this seminar were: - safety culture from the point of view of operators, - safety culture from the point of view of the authorities, - safety culture: collaboration between power plants, the authorities and research organisations, - trends and developments in the field of safety culture. Invitations to attend this seminar were extended to the management boards of companies operating Swiss nuclear power plants, and to representatives of the Swiss authorities responsible for the safety of nuclear power plants. All these organisations were represented by a large number of executive and specialist staff. We would like to express our sincerest thanks to the Head of the Federal Department of Transport and Energy for his kind patronage of this seminar. (author) figs., tabs., refs

Safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drukraroff, C.

2010-01-01

The concept of Safety Culture was defined after Chernobyl's nuclear accident in 1986. It has not been exempt from discussion interpretations, adding riders, etc..., over the last 24 years because it has to do with human behavior and performance in the organizations. Safety Culture is not an easy task to define, assess and monitor. The proof of it is that today we still discussing and writing about it. How has been the evolution of Safety Culture at the Juzbado Factory since 1985 to today?. What is the strategy that we will be following in the future. (Author)

Building Nuclear Safety and Security Culture Within Regulatory Body

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huda, K.

2016-01-01

To achieve a higher level of nuclear safety and security, it needs to develop the safety and security culture not only in the facility but also in the regulatory body. The regulatory body, especially needs to develop the safety and security culture within the organization, because it has a function to promote and oversee the culture in the facilities. In this sense, the regulatory body should become a role model. Development of the nuclear safety and security culture should be started by properly understanding its concept and awakening the awareness of individual and organization on the importance of nuclear safety and security. For effectiveness of the culture development in the regulatory body, the following steps are suggested to be taken: setting up of the regulatory requirements, self-assessment, independent assessment review, communication with the licensee, oversight of management system implementation, and integration with regulatory activities. The paper discusses those steps in the framework of development of nuclear safety and security culture in the regulatory body, as well as some important elements in building of the culture in the nuclear facilities. (author)

Airline Safety Management: The development of a proactive safety mechanism model for the evolution of safety management system

OpenAIRE

Hsu, Yueh-Ling

2004-01-01

The systemic origins of many accidents have led to heightened interest in the way in which organisations identify and manage risks within the airline industry. The activities which are thought to represent the term "organisational accident", "safety culture" and "proactive approach" are documented and seek to explain the fact that airlines differ in their willingness and ability to conduct safety management. However, an important but yet relatively undefined task in the airline...

Activities on safety culture study. Study status in public and private sectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makino, Maomi; Takano, Kenichi

2004-01-01

Around after entering in the 21st century, organizational accidents had occurred in Japan at various industries including nuclear industry, which were caused directly by unsafe action, human error and illegal conduct of personnel but there were problems in safety culture of organization such as slow retreat of safety system stimulated by management, schedule control and procedure management becoming a dead letter, lack of safety education, and workplace climate of schedule priority. This article referred to organizational factors common to many severe accidents and introduced safety culture study in public and private sectors to overcome those factors. Safety Culture Evaluation Support Tool (SCEST) was developed for self-evaluation of safety culture of organization as well as Organizational Reliability model (OR model) for analysis of initiation and propagation process of risk event. Safety diagnosis system and feedback type risk assessment system for promoting safe organizational climate and culture were also developed. (T. Tanaka)

Safety Culture in New Build Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, T.

2016-01-01

The concept of culture emphasises the social factors that have an effect on the way hazards are perceived, risks are evaluated, risk management is conducted, the current safety level is interpreted, and what is considered normal and what abnormal. It also contributes to defining the correct ways to behave in situations and correct ways to talk about safety, risks or uncertainty. Culture is something the company has created for itself that then has an effect on the company. This effect is not necessarily perceived by the company itself, since the members of the organization consider all things that happen according to their cultural taken-for-granted assumptions (“business as usual”). Thus, safety culture can either hinder or advance nuclear safety. This depends on what the shared values and assumptions are, and how they are in line with, and influence, the organizational structures, practices, personnel and technology. Safety culture requires constant and systematic development, monitoring and review during the entire life-cycle of a nuclear facility. The pre-operational phase sets many unique requirements for nuclear safety culture. For example, some of the organizations and individuals involved in the project may have no insight on how safety culture relates to nuclear power plants. Companies that work in the conventional industry typically associate safety with occupational safety issues, not with nuclear safety. Further, it may be unclear how the construction phase affects nuclear safety of an operating plant. When workers are asked to perform their work differently than previously (e.g., in conventional construction sites), explanation has to be given. For example, structures, systems and components may have different functions during emergency that exceed or differ from their quality requirements during normal operation. The strict quality requirements and use of certain methods and procedures, documentation requirements, etc., may seem unimportant if

From Safety Culture to Culture for Safety — What is it that we Still Haven’t Learned

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haber, S.B.

2016-01-01

In April 1986 the Chernobyl Accident happened. Several years later in 1991 the IAEA Independent Nuclear Safety Advisory Group published INSAG-4 and the concept of safety culture was defined for the nuclear community because of its relationship to the accident. Where the Three Mile Island Accident in 1979 had brought human factors issues in procedure development, human performance, and training to light, the Chernobyl Accident was discussed in terms of management, supervision, and safety culture. Work in the nuclear community evolved around the concept of safety culture although a clear understanding of what was actually meant was often missing. Methods to evaluate and assess safety culture were developed and efforts to integrate the findings of those evaluations into more traditional nuclear tools, such as probabilistic risk and safety assessment were attempted as well. Safety culture became thought of as a process that could be written into a procedure, measured by performance indicators and fixed in a corrective action program. The changes that organizations saw as a function of their safety culture improvement programs though were often just changes in some behaviors. Short term improvements in safety performance and the metrics to measure them were observed and many concluded they had really changed their safety culture. The changes were often not sustainable. The efforts did not include an in depth understanding of why individuals thought or behaved in the way that they did. In March 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi Accident happened. Initially it was accepted to explain it as a natural disaster. While the earthquake or the tsunami could not be prevented, there were things that could have been done before, during and immediately after the natural phenomena that would have helped to mitigate the consequences of the accident. The IAEA conducted an in-depth analysis of the human and organizational factors of that accident and drew a number of conclusions but none so

Integrated Safety Culture Model and Application

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

汪磊; 孙瑞山; 刘汉辉

2009-01-01

A new safety culture model is constructed and is applied to analyze the correlations between safety culture and SMS. On the basis of previous typical definitions, models and theories of safety culture, an in-depth analysis on safety culture's structure, composing elements and their correlations was conducted. A new definition of safety culture was proposed from the perspective of sub-cuhure. 7 types of safety sub-culture, which are safety priority culture, standardizing culture, flexible culture, learning culture, teamwork culture, reporting culture and justice culture were defined later. Then integrated safety culture model (ISCM) was put forward based on the definition. The model divided safety culture into intrinsic latency level and extrinsic indication level and explained the potential relationship between safety sub-culture and all safety culture dimensions. Finally in the analyzing of safety culture and SMS, it concluded that positive safety culture is the basis of im-plementing SMS effectively and an advanced SMS will improve safety culture from all around.

The establishment of the safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touzet, R.E.

1998-01-01

The first step in the establishment of the Safety Culture is splitting this concept into the elements involved in the same, so as to facilitate and approach to the issue. Then, two methodologies must be introduced, which shall perform independently, although synergically: (1) an 'updated' Quality Assurance Program and (2) a Program of Non-Technical (psychological and social) Activities aimed at stimulating motivation among the individuals in the Organization and at facilitating team work. Later on, once the necessary experience has been gained, the management of the organization must be based, essentially, on continuous development and on making full use of the skills of the individuals involved. In order to be successful, the establishment of a new culture of business management requires three key elements: 1) a working method containing the adequate indicators for measuring progress; 2) the commitment of the managers and the participation of all the staff; 3) the attainment of a net economical benefit that is made evident through an increase in productivity. However, all these actions refer only to one of the components of the system: the Operator of a Nuclear Power Plant, while Safety Culture must involve the whole National System, including the Government and the Regulatory Authority. The introduction of a new culture must necessarily bring along the acceptance of new concepts, new criteria and new methodologies among all the decision makers in the National System. Therefore, a change in culture must include a change in the culture of the Regulatory Authority. For instance, an evaluation of the Safety Culture is not workable by means of a conventional audit or a regulatory inspection. The fact is that what is easy to measure is not the main thing and what is difficult to measure is the only thing that actually matters. Summarizing: 'The Regulatory Authority shall be unable to verify the results because the evidences are intangible', but it shall indeed be able

Safety culture enhancement through the implementation of IAEA guidelines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mengolini, A.; Debarberis, L.

2007-01-01

This paper presents the methodology applied and the results achieved in adapting and implementing the IAEA guidelines on safety culture to a research reactor as a step towards supporting its Life Management Program. The background is presented together with the effort undertaken to develop awareness on safety culture and the enhancement programme hereafter developed. The present study shows how issues of safety culture, management awareness and commitment deserve attention and can be of fundamental relevance also for research reactors. The study presents how guidelines developed specifically for nuclear power installations (NPPs) can be adapted to meet the needs and peculiarities of other nuclear installations. Moreover, the difficulties met during the implementation of the guidelines are discussed and important information and lessons can be learnt for the nuclear industry in general

Safeguards Culture: Analogies from Safety Culture and Security Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naito, K.

2013-01-01

The terminology of 'safeguards culture' has been used loosely by safeguards experts as an essential element for establishing an organizational environment of stakeholders for the effective and efficient implementation of international safeguards. However, unlike the other two triplet brothers/ sisters of 3S's (Safety, Security, Safeguards), there is no formally established definition of safeguards culture. In the case of safety culture, INSAG (the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group) has extensively dealt with its concept, elaborating its definition and key characteristics, and published its report, INSAG-4, as the IAEA Safety Series 75. On the other hand, security culture has also been defined by AdSec (the Advisory Group on Nuclear Security). In this paper, a provisional definition of safeguards culture is made on the analogies of safety culture and security culture, and an effort is made to describe essential elements of safeguards culture. It is proposed for SAGSI (the Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation) to formally consider the definition of safeguards culture and its characteristics. The paper is followed by the slides of the presentation. (author)

Safety Culture Improvement Activities of YGN 3 and 4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Il Hoon

2006-01-01

In nuclear power industry all over the world, we can never overemphasize the importance of nuclear safety. After the Chernobyl accident occurred in 1986, Korean nuclear energy industry had made every effort to enhance nuclear safety culture further. And, as a result of the efforts, Korean government declared the five principles for the nuclear energy safety regulation, which were included in the Nuclear Energy Safety Policy Statement published in 1994. In 2001, through the announcement of Nuclear Safety Charter for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the Ministry of Science and Technology proclaimed at home and abroad that the protection of citizens and environment by securing nuclear safety should be the highest priority in nuclear energy industry. Occupying almost 40% share of domestic electricity generation, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. decided 'Safety Top Priority Management' as president's management policy, and clearly presented the safety goal to the personnel. By this, the management can effectively place stress on securing safety, which is our highest priority and the only way to win public confidence toward nuclear energy industry. This is prepared to shortly introduce the activities for improving safety culture in Yonggwang Nuclear Power unit 3 and 4 (YGN 3 and 4)

Key practical issues in strengthening safety culture. INSAG-15. A report by the International Safety Advisory Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

This report describes the essential practical issues to be considered by organizations aiming to strengthen safety culture. It is intended for senior executives, managers and first line supervisors in operating organizations. Although safety culture cannot be directly regulated, it is important that members of regulatory bodies understand how their actions affect the development of attempts to strengthen safety culture and are sympathetic to the need to improve the less formal human related aspects of safety. The report is therefore of relevance to regulators, although not intended primarily for them. The International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) introduced the concept of safety culture in its INSAG-4 report in 1991. Since then, many papers have been written on safety culture, as it relates to organizations and individuals, its improvement and its underpinning prerequisites. Variations in national cultures mean that what constitutes a good approach to enhancing safety culture in one country may not be the best approach in another. However, INSAG seeks to provide pragmatic and practical advice of wide applicability in the principles and issues presented in this report. Nuclear and radiological safety are the prime concerns of this report, but the topics discussed are so general that successful application of the principles should lead to improvements in other important areas, such as industrial safety, environmental performance and, in some respects, wider business performance. This is because many of the attitudes and practices necessary to achieve good performance in nuclear safety, including visible commitment by management, openness, care and thoroughness in completing tasks, good communication and clarity in recognizing major issues and dealing with them as a priority, have wide applicability

On personal safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Zigen

1996-01-01

The paper mainly expounds the personal safety culture, including the following aspects: the attitude to exploration, strict methods and the habit of exchange etc. It points out that straightening the education of safety culture and heightening the level of personal safety culture can get not only high-level safety but also high-level quality

Safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

The response to a previous publication by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG), indicated a broad international interest in expansion of the concept of Safety Culture, in such a way that its effectiveness in particular cases may be judged. This report responds to that need. In its manifestation, Safety Culture has two major components: the framework determined by organizational policy and by managerial action, and the response of individuals in working within and benefiting by the framework. 1 fig

Safety Culture in Pre-operational Phases of Nuclear Power Plant Projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-09-15

An abundance of information exists on safety culture related to the operational phases of nuclear power plants; however, pre-operational phases present unique challenges. This publication focuses on safety culture during pre-operational phases that span the interval from before a decision to launch a nuclear power programme to first fuel load. It provides safety culture insights and focuses on eight generic issues: safety culture understanding; multicultural aspects; leadership; competencies and resource competition; management systems; learning and feedback; cultural assessments; and communication. Each issue is discussed in terms of: specific challenges; desired state; approaches and methods; and examples and resources. This publication will be of interest to newcomers and experienced individuals faced with the opportunities and challenges inherent in safety culture programmes aimed at pre-operational activities.

Safety Culture in Pre-operational Phases of Nuclear Power Plant Projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-01-01

An abundance of information exists on safety culture related to the operational phases of nuclear power plants; however, pre-operational phases present unique challenges. This publication focuses on safety culture during pre-operational phases that span the interval from before a decision to launch a nuclear power programme to first fuel load. It provides safety culture insights and focuses on eight generic issues: safety culture understanding; multicultural aspects; leadership; competencies and resource competition; management systems; learning and feedback; cultural assessments; and communication. Each issue is discussed in terms of: specific challenges; desired state; approaches and methods; and examples and resources. This publication will be of interest to newcomers and experienced individuals faced with the opportunities and challenges inherent in safety culture programmes aimed at pre-operational activities.

SOS-1 seminar about safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wahlstroem, B.; Hammar, L.

2000-01-01

The aim of the seminar was to discuss safety culture in nuclear power utilities, and to exchange experiences about how the term safety culture is accepted by the personnel. The titles of the presentations are: 1) Organisational culture. General ideas as basis for organising; 2) Safety culture - ability and will; 3) View on safety culture at Swedish and Finnish nuclear power plants; 4) Safety culture at Barsebaeck Power Company; 5) Safety culture at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant; 6) How do we improve the safety culture at OKG AB?; 7) Safety culture activities at Ringhals; 8) Aspects in relation to safety culture; 9) Development of regulatory activities/effectiveness of STUK - development as an aspect of culture; 10) Organisational culture research at STUK's Department of Nuclear Reactor Regulation; 11) The IAEA safety culture services; 12) Industrial safety - different perspectives and cultures. (EHS)

Safety Culture Survey in Krsko NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strucic, M.; Bilic Zadric, T.

2008-01-01

results very reliable. Survey results were statistically analyzed and presented to Krsko NPP management board. More specific qualitative analyses were performed for departments. With assistance of Safety Culture Self Assessment team members, leaders of these departments developed specific action plans and disseminated major identified issues. By these feedbacks Krsko NPP ensured better employees understanding of the results of the survey. It is very exceptive that employee's responses will contribute to the overall process and establishment of safety conscious work environment.(author)

Safety culture in a major nuclear fuel cycle facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pushparaja; Abani, M.C.

2002-01-01

Human factor plays an important role in development of safety culture in any nuclear fuel cycle facility. This is more relevant in major nuclear facility such as a reactor or a reprocessing plant. In Indian reprocessing plants, an effective worker's training, education and certification program is in place to sensitize the worker's response to safety and safe work procedures. The methodology followed to self evaluation of safety culture and the benefits in a reprocessing plant is briefly discussed. Various indicators of safety performance and visible signs of a good safety management are also qualitatively analyzed. (author)

[Safety culture: definition, models and design].

Science.gov (United States)

Pfaff, Holger; Hammer, Antje; Ernstmann, Nicole; Kowalski, Christoph; Ommen, Oliver

2009-01-01

Safety culture is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Safety culture of a healthcare organization is high if it has a common stock in knowledge, values and symbols in regard to patients' safety. The article intends to define safety culture in the first step and, in the second step, demonstrate the effects of safety culture. We present the model of safety behaviour and show how safety culture can affect behaviour and produce safe behaviour. In the third step we will look at the causes of safety culture and present the safety-culture-model. The main hypothesis of this model is that the safety culture of a healthcare organization strongly depends on its communication culture and its social capital. Finally, we will investigate how the safety culture of a healthcare organization can be improved. Based on the safety culture model six measures to improve safety culture will be presented.

Contemporary Approaches to Safety Culture: Lessons from Developing a Regulatory Oversight Approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goebel, V.; Heppell-Masys, K.

2016-01-01

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment, and to implement Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public. In the late 1990s, the CNSC conducted research into an Organization and Management (O&M) assessment method. Based on this research the CNSC conducted O&M assessments at all Canadian nuclear power plants and conducted additional assessments of nuclear research and uranium mine and mill operations. The results of these assessments were presented to licencees and used to inform their ongoing actions related to safety culture. Additional safety culture outreach and oversight activities provided licencees with opportunities to develop effective safety culture assessment methods, to share best practices across industry, and to strive for continual improvement of their organizations. Recent changes to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) management system standard have resulted in the inclusion of requirements associated to safety culture and human performance. Representatives from several sectors of Canada’s nuclear industry, as well as participation from regulators such as the CNSC took part to the development of this consensus standard. Specifically, these requirements focus on monitoring and understanding safety culture, integrating safety into all of the requirements of the management system, committing workers to adhere to the management system and supporting excellence in workers’ performance. The CNSC is currently developing a regulatory document on safety culture which includes key concepts applicable to all licencees and specific requirements related to self-assessment, and additional guidance for nuclear power plants. Developing a regulatory document on safety culture requires consultation and fact finding initiatives at

Discussion on safety culture general contract model of consultation enterprises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dong Huimin; Zhang Hao

2012-01-01

With a high safety requirement, long construction period, a large amount of investment and many influencing factors of the preparation and implementation of project schedule, local nuclear power always is built through EPC. Safety level depends on EPC. Some measures should be taken for local consultation enterprises to improve situation of safety. Some suggestion as follows: safety culture should be received enough attention; management system should be established in according with requirement of safety culture; try to encourage employee involvement; to assess it in time; safety system should be entirely compatible with enterprises system. (authors)

The awareness of employees in safety culture through the improved nuclear safety culture evaluation method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Young Ga; Sung, Chan Ho; Jung, Yeon Sub [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-10-15

After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, nuclear safety culture terminology was at first introduced emphasizing the importance of employees' attitude and organizational safety. The concept of safety culture was spread by INSAG 4 published in 1991. From that time, IAEA had provided the service of ASCOT for the safety culture assessment. However, many people still are thinking that safety culture is abstract and is not clear. It is why the systematic and reliable assessment methodology was not developed. Assessing safety culture is to identify what is the basic assumption for any organization to accept unconsciously. Therefore, it is very difficult to reach a meaningful conclusion by a superficial investigation alone. KHNP had been doing the safety culture assessment which was based on ASCOT methodology every 2 years. And this result had contributed to improving safety culture. But this result could not represent the level of organization's safety culture due to the limitation of method. So, KHNP has improved the safety culture method by benchmarking the over sea assessment techniques in 2011. The effectiveness of this improved methodology was validated through a pilot assessment. In this paper, the level of employees' safety culture awareness was analyzed by the improved method and reviewed what is necessary for the completeness and objectivity of the nuclear safety culture assessment methodology.

The awareness of employees in safety culture through the improved nuclear safety culture evaluation method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Young Ga; Sung, Chan Ho; Jung, Yeon Sub

2012-01-01

After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, nuclear safety culture terminology was at first introduced emphasizing the importance of employees' attitude and organizational safety. The concept of safety culture was spread by INSAG 4 published in 1991. From that time, IAEA had provided the service of ASCOT for the safety culture assessment. However, many people still are thinking that safety culture is abstract and is not clear. It is why the systematic and reliable assessment methodology was not developed. Assessing safety culture is to identify what is the basic assumption for any organization to accept unconsciously. Therefore, it is very difficult to reach a meaningful conclusion by a superficial investigation alone. KHNP had been doing the safety culture assessment which was based on ASCOT methodology every 2 years. And this result had contributed to improving safety culture. But this result could not represent the level of organization's safety culture due to the limitation of method. So, KHNP has improved the safety culture method by benchmarking the over sea assessment techniques in 2011. The effectiveness of this improved methodology was validated through a pilot assessment. In this paper, the level of employees' safety culture awareness was analyzed by the improved method and reviewed what is necessary for the completeness and objectivity of the nuclear safety culture assessment methodology

Enhancement of nuclear safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Stanley J.

1996-01-01

Throughout the 40-year history of the commercial nuclear power industry, improvements have continually been made in the design of nuclear power plants and the equipment in them. In one sense, we have reached an enviable point -- in most plants, equipment failures have become relatively rare. Yet events continue to occur. Regardless of how much the plants are improved, that equipment is operated by people -- highly motivated, well-trained people -- but people nonetheless. And people occasionally make mistakes. By setting the right climate and by setting high standards, good plant management can reduce the number of mistakes made ? and also reduce their potential consequences. Another way to say this is that the proper safety culture must be established and continually improved upon in our nuclear plants. Safety culture is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as 'that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance.' In short, we must make safety our top priority

Improving safety in small enterprises through an integrated safety management intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Kines, Pete; Andersen, Dorte; Andersen, Lars Peter; Nielsen, Kent; Pedersen, Louise

2013-02-01

This study tests the applicability of a participatory behavior-based injury prevention approach integrated with safety culture initiatives. Sixteen small metal industry enterprises (10-19 employees) are randomly assigned to receive the intervention or not. Safety coaching of owners/managers result in the identification of 48 safety tasks, 85% of which are solved at follow-up. Owner/manager led constructive dialogue meetings with workers result in the prioritization of 29 tasks, 79% of which are accomplished at follow-up. Intervention enterprises have significant increases on six of eight safety-perception-survey factors, while comparisons increase on only one factor. Both intervention and comparison enterprises demonstrate significant increases in their safety observation scores. Interview data validate and supplement these results, providing some evidence for behavior change and the initiation of safety culture change. Given that over 95% of enterprises in most countries have less than 20 employees, there is great potential for adapting this integrated approach to other industries. Copyright © 2012 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promotion of good safety culture at a Swedish BWR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ingmarsson, K F [Forsmark NPP (Sweden)

1997-12-31

Within the nuclear industry there are two events which have had a significant impact on the way of thinking and attitudes to safety, although in different ways. The TMI accident at Harrisburg, USA put the focus on Man-Machine interface, the way of working and attitudes to safety. The accident at Chernobyl focused on Safety Management and Safety Culture. Before the TMI accident, technology was believed to be the solutions to all kinds of problems. Technical solutions should compensate for human behaviour. After the TMI accident the focus was put on Man-Machine issues and a lot of the resources within the Nuclear Industry was allocated to Man-Machine-Interfaces, Procedures, Training, etc. After the Chernobyl accident, safety culture (IAEA INSAG-4) became a commonly used concept which included an overall perspective on safety and an understanding of the interaction between Man, Technology and Organizational matters (MTO). The Safety Culture within an organization is the sum of all attitudes, qualities and experiences influencing safety. Safety Culture is consequently not only a single quality or a single property but a generic term representing the promotion of safety in many areas.

Promotion of good safety culture at a Swedish BWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ingmarsson, K.F.

1996-01-01

Within the nuclear industry there are two events which have had a significant impact on the way of thinking and attitudes to safety, although in different ways. The TMI accident at Harrisburg, USA put the focus on Man-Machine interface, the way of working and attitudes to safety. The accident at Chernobyl focused on Safety Management and Safety Culture. Before the TMI accident, technology was believed to be the solutions to all kinds of problems. Technical solutions should compensate for human behaviour. After the TMI accident the focus was put on Man-Machine issues and a lot of the resources within the Nuclear Industry was allocated to Man-Machine-Interfaces, Procedures, Training, etc. After the Chernobyl accident, safety culture (IAEA INSAG-4) became a commonly used concept which included an overall perspective on safety and an understanding of the interaction between Man, Technology and Organizational matters (MTO). The Safety Culture within an organization is the sum of all attitudes, qualities and experiences influencing safety. Safety Culture is consequently not only a single quality or a single property but a generic term representing the promotion of safety in many areas

Safety outcomes for engineering asset management organizations: Old problem with new solutions?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novak, Jeremy; Farr-Wharton, Ben; Brunetto, Yvonne; Shacklock, Kate; Brown, Kerry

2017-01-01

The issue of safety and longevity of engineering assets is of increasing importance because of their impact when disasters happen. This paper addresses a literature gap by examining the role of workplace relationships in employees' safety behaviour, and builds on the Resilience Engineering (RE) framework by examining some organisational culture factors affecting how employees behave. A Social Exchange framework is used to examine the impact of supervisor-employee relationships, employee commitment to safety practices, and the type of maintenance culture upon employees’ commitment to safety and safety outcomes. Survey data from 284 technical and engineering employees in engineering asset management organisations within Australia were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Effective employee relationships with management and a proactive maintenance culture were associated with employee commitment to safety culture and safety outcomes. The findings provide empirical support for embedding an effective organisational culture focused on a proactive maintenance approach, along with ensuring employees are committed to safety processes, to ensure safety outcomes and also asset longevity. One study contribution is that good safety outcomes do not develop in a vacuum; instead they are built on effective workplace relationships. Therefore, SET helps to explain the forming of effective safety culture. - Highlights: • Effective workplace relationships with management positively affect organisational safety outcomes. • Supported maintenance cultures positively affect organisational safety outcomes. • Asset longevity requires strong focus on maintenance and safety embedded in the work cultures and everyday practices of employees.

Safety culture improvements in a nuclear laboratory setting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, K.L.; McKenna, J.

2014-01-01

In 2008, AECL performed a comprehensive safety culture assessment using recognized, industry-proven methodologies. Main observations were grouped into several key areas including standards, procedures, error-free work, and leadership fundamentals. Shortly thereafter, in 2009 May, the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was shut down following discovery of a small leak of heavy water. Extensive repairs were required to return the reactor to service and a root cause investigation was conducted to determine the organizational and programmatic causes that led to the event. Taken together, these presented management with insights into common areas of weaknesses in performance and behaviours. A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to address both the findings of the root cause analysis and safety culture assessment was captured in a comprehensive improvement plan issued in 2010 March, entitled the Voyageur Program Phase II (Voyageur II). The CAP addresses six key areas: Improve equipment reliability; Drive desired behaviours; Improve problem identification and resolution; Improve use of industry Operating Experience (OPEX) and reduce isolationism; Improve standards of operation; and, Improve management oversight. AECL's safety culture has been monitored regularly using quarterly surveys. A detailed safety culture assessment was executed in 2012 September. Compared with previous results, improvements for AECL were noted in the following areas: Use of Operating Experience, specifically in work planning, pre job briefs and training; Procedure quality; Availability of safety equipment; Control of temporary changes; and, Improved operational standards. (author)

Safety culture improvements in a nuclear laboratory setting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, K.L.; McKenna, J. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, ON (Canada)

2014-07-01

In 2008, AECL performed a comprehensive safety culture assessment using recognized, industry-proven methodologies. Main observations were grouped into several key areas including standards, procedures, error-free work, and leadership fundamentals. Shortly thereafter, in 2009 May, the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was shut down following discovery of a small leak of heavy water. Extensive repairs were required to return the reactor to service and a root cause investigation was conducted to determine the organizational and programmatic causes that led to the event. Taken together, these presented management with insights into common areas of weaknesses in performance and behaviours. A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to address both the findings of the root cause analysis and safety culture assessment was captured in a comprehensive improvement plan issued in 2010 March, entitled the Voyageur Program Phase II (Voyageur II). The CAP addresses six key areas: Improve equipment reliability; Drive desired behaviours; Improve problem identification and resolution; Improve use of industry Operating Experience (OPEX) and reduce isolationism; Improve standards of operation; and, Improve management oversight. AECL's safety culture has been monitored regularly using quarterly surveys. A detailed safety culture assessment was executed in 2012 September. Compared with previous results, improvements for AECL were noted in the following areas: Use of Operating Experience, specifically in work planning, pre job briefs and training; Procedure quality; Availability of safety equipment; Control of temporary changes; and, Improved operational standards. (author)

Safety culture assessment in petrochemical industry: a comparative study of two algerian plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Boughaba, Assia; Hassane, Chabane; Roukia, Ouddai

2014-06-01

To elucidate the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of a particular company. To identify the factors that contribute to a safety culture, a survey questionnaire was created based mainly on the studies of Fernández-Muñiz et al. The survey was randomly distributed to 1000 employees of two oil companies and realized a rate of valid answer of 51%. Minitab 16 software was used and diverse tests, including the descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, mean analysis, and correlation, were used for the analysis of data. Ten factors were extracted using the analysis of factor to represent safety culture and safety performance. The results of this study showed that the managers' commitment, training, incentives, communication, and employee involvement are the priority domains on which it is necessary to stress the effort of improvement, where they had all the descriptive average values lower than 3.0 at the level of Company B. Furthermore, the results also showed that the safety culture influences the safety performance of the company. Therefore, Company A with a good safety culture (the descriptive average values more than 4.0), is more successful than Company B in terms of accident rates. The comparison between the two petrochemical plants of the group Sonatrach confirms these results in which Company A, the managers of which are English and Norwegian, distinguishes itself by the maturity of their safety culture has significantly higher evaluations than the company B, who is constituted of Algerian staff, in terms of safety management practices and safety performance.

Is road safety management linked to road safety performance?

Science.gov (United States)

Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Yannis, George

2013-10-01

This research aims to explore the relationship between road safety management and road safety performance at country level. For that purpose, an appropriate theoretical framework is selected, namely the 'SUNflower' pyramid, which describes road safety management systems in terms of a five-level hierarchy: (i) structure and culture, (ii) programmes and measures, (iii) 'intermediate' outcomes'--safety performance indicators (SPIs), (iv) final outcomes--fatalities and injuries, and (v) social costs. For each layer of the pyramid, a composite indicator is implemented, on the basis of data for 30 European countries. Especially as regards road safety management indicators, these are estimated on the basis of Categorical Principal Component Analysis upon the responses of a dedicated road safety management questionnaire, jointly created and dispatched by the ETSC/PIN group and the 'DaCoTA' research project. Then, quasi-Poisson models and Beta regression models are developed for linking road safety management indicators and other indicators (i.e. background characteristics, SPIs) with road safety performance. In this context, different indicators of road safety performance are explored: mortality and fatality rates, percentage reduction in fatalities over a given period, a composite indicator of road safety final outcomes, and a composite indicator of 'intermediate' outcomes (SPIs). The results of the analyses suggest that road safety management can be described on the basis of three composite indicators: "vision and strategy", "budget, evaluation and reporting", and "measurement of road user attitudes and behaviours". Moreover, no direct statistical relationship could be established between road safety management indicators and final outcomes. However, a statistical relationship was found between road safety management and 'intermediate' outcomes, which were in turn found to affect 'final' outcomes, confirming the SUNflower approach on the consecutive effect of each layer

Lessons learned from measuring safety culture: an Australian case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Suellen; Chiarella, Mary; Homer, Caroline S E

2010-10-01

adverse events in maternity care are relatively common but often avoidable. International patient safety strategies advocate measuring safety culture as a strategy to improve patient safety. Evidence suggests it is necessary to fully understand the safety culture of an organisation to make improvements to patient safety. this paper reports a case study examining the safety culture in one maternity service in Australia and considers the benefits of using surveys and interviews to understand safety culture as an approach to identify possible strategies to improve patient safety in this setting. the study took place in one maternity service in two public hospitals in NSW, Australia. Concurrently, both hospitals were undergoing an organisational restructure which was part of a major health reform agenda. The priorities of the reform included improving the quality of care and patient safety; and, creating a more efficient health system by reducing administration inefficiencies and duplication. a descriptive case study using three approaches: the safety culture was identified to warrant improvement across all six safety culture domains. There was reduced infrastructure and capacity to support incident management activities required to improve safety, which was influenced by instability from the organisational restructure. There was a perceived lack of leadership at all levels to drive safety and quality and improving the safety culture was neither a key priority nor was it valued by the organisation. the safety culture was complex as was undertaking this study. We were unable to achieve a desired 60% response rate highlighting the limitations of using safety culture surveys in isolation as a strategy to improve safety culture. Qualitative interviews provided greater insight into the factors influencing the safety culture. The findings of this study provide evidence of the benefits of including qualitative methods with quantitative surveys when examining safety culture

A step towards positive safety culture in DAE units

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramprasad, K.

2016-01-01

Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has considered safety as its priority, since inception in late 1950s, in all its activities. A belief in safety principles like defense-in depth, diversity, multi-tier review, etc. has laid a long path of success in safety management for decades. Multitude of DAE activities in the past few decades, especially in application of nuclear energy in scientific research, industrial, medical, agriculture and food technologies, often, poses new challenges in safety management. A good safety management system is in place in DAE units to cope up with the challenges of the evolving technologies. An opportunity is taken through this workshop to highlight extra efforts to be taken to inch forward in developing a strong safety culture

Changes in patient safety culture after restructuring of intensive care units: Two cross-sectional studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Vifladt, Anne; Simonsen, Bjoerg O; Lydersen, Stian; Farup, Per G

2016-02-01

Compare changes in registered nurses' perception of the patient safety culture in restructured and not restructured intensive care units during a four-year period. Two cross-sectional surveys were performed, in 2008/2009 (time 1) and 2012/2013 (time 2). During a period of 0-3 years after time 1, three of six hospitals merged their general and medical intensive care units (restructured). The other hospitals maintained their structure of the intensive care units (not restructured). Intensive care units in hospitals at one Norwegian hospital trust. The safety culture was measured with Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. At times 1 and 2, 217/302 (72%) and 145/289 (50%) registered nurses participated. Restructuring was negatively associated with change in the safety culture, in particular, the dimensions of the safety culture within the unit level. The dimensions most vulnerable for restructuring were manager expectations and actions promoting safety, teamwork within hospital units and staffing. In this study, the restructuring of intensive care units was associated with a negative impact on the safety culture. When restructuring, the management should be particularly aware of changes in the safety culture dimensions manager expectations and actions promoting safety, teamwork within hospital units and staffing. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Safety culture in nuclear installations: Summary of an international topical meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carnino, A.; Derrough, M.; Weimann, G.

1996-01-01

An international topical meeting, Safety Culture in Nuclear Installations, was organized by the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Austria Local Section, cosponsored by the ANS Nuclear Reactor Safety and Human Factors Divisions in cooperation with the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (NEA/OECD) and held in Vienna April 24-28, 1995. Some 250 experts from 30 different countries and organizations took part in the 85 paper presentations and two workshops. The concept of safety culture was initially used in the first International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) report on the Chernobyl accident analysis report in 1986. Although some elements of safety culture have been used over the years in nuclear safety activities, the new phrase safety culture and the concept were found interesting as highlighting the 'soft' aspects of safety and as encompassing more than human errors. Unfortunately, for many years it was used more in the way of identifying lack of safety culture. Conscious of this application, INSAG further developed the safety culture concept in the INSAG 4 report: The report contains a definition, the universal aspects of safety culture, the two main components of safety culture management and individual behaviour, and performance indicators of a good safety culture. This report is now quite famous and adopted with some additions or complementary definitions by many institutes and organizations for their daily activities

Patient Safety Culture and the Second Victim Phenomenon: Connecting Culture to Staff Distress in Nurses

Science.gov (United States)

Quillivan, Rebecca R.; Burlison, Jonathan D.; Browne, Emily K.; Scott, Susan D.; Hoffman, James M.

2017-01-01

Background Second victim experiences can affect the well-being of healthcare providers and compromise patient safety. Many factors associated with improved coping afer patient safety event involvement are also components of a strong patient safety culture, so that supportive patient safety cultures may reduce second victim–related trauma. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted to assess the influence of patient safety culture on second victim–related distress, in which associations among patient safety culture dimensions, organizational support, and second victim distress were investigated. Methods The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (SVEST), which was developed to assess organizational support and personal and professional distress after involvement in a patient safety event, were administered to nurses involved in direct patient care. Results Of 358 nurses, 155 (41%) responded, of whom 144 completed both surveys. Hierarchical linear regression demonstrated that the patient safety culture survey dimension nonpunitive response to errors was significantly associated with reductions in the second victim survey dimensions psychological, physical, and professional distress (p patient safety event by encouraging supportive interactions. Also, perceptions of second victim–related distress may be less severe when hospital cultures are characterized by nonpunitive response to errors. Reducing punitive response to error and encouraging supportive coworker, supervisor, and institutional interactions may be useful strategies to manage the severity of second victim experiences. PMID:27456420

Assessing the relationship between patient safety culture and EHR strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Eric W; Silvera, Geoffrey A; Kazley, Abby S; Diana, Mark L; Huerta, Timothy R

2016-07-11

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between hospitals' electronic health record (EHR) adoption characteristics and their patient safety cultures. The "Meaningful Use" (MU) program is designed to increase hospitals' adoption of EHR, which will lead to better care quality, reduce medical errors, avoid unnecessary cost, and promote a patient safety culture. To reduce medical errors, hospital leaders have been encouraged to promote safety cultures common to high-reliability organizations. Expecting a positive relationship between EHR adoption and improved patient safety cultures appears sound in theory, but it has yet to be empirically demonstrated. Design/methodology/approach - Providers' perceptions of patient safety culture and counts of patient safety incidents are explored in relationship to hospital EHR adoption patterns. Multi-level modeling is employed to data drawn from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's surveys on patient safety culture (level 1) and the American Hospital Association's survey and healthcare information technology supplement (level 2). Findings - The findings suggest that the early adoption of EHR capabilities hold a negative association to the number of patient safety events reported. However, this relationship was not present in providers' perceptions of overall patient safety cultures. These mixed results suggest that the understanding of the EHR-patient safety culture relationship needs further research. Originality/value - Relating EHR MU and providers' care quality attitudes is an important leading indicator for improved patient safety cultures. For healthcare facility managers and providers, the ability to effectively quantify the impact of new technologies on efforts to change organizational cultures is important for pinpointing clinical areas for process improvements.

Resilience Safety Culture in Aviation Organisations

OpenAIRE

Akselsson, R.; Koornneef, F.; Stewart, S.; Ward, M.

2009-01-01

Chapter 2: Resilience Safety Culture in Aviation Organisations The European Commission HILAS project (Human Integration into the Lifecycle of Aviation Systems - a project supported by the European Commission’s 6th Framework between 2005-2009) was focused on using human factors knowledge and methodology to address key challenges for aviation (current and future) including a performance based approach for safety and fatigue management in the aviation sector, mainly inflight operations and maint...

Integration of safety culture in transient analyses for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stosic, Zoran V.; Stoll, Uwe

2009-01-01

In the nuclear field Safety Culture is the arrangement of attitudes and characteristics in individuals and organisations which determines first and foremost that nuclear power plant safety issues receive adequate attention due to their outstanding significance. It differs from general Corporate Culture via its concept of core hazards and the potentially large effects associated with the release of radioactivity. One can talk about positive and negative Safety Cultures. A positive Safety Culture assumes that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. The different parts interact to increase the overall effectiveness. In a negative Safety Culture the opposite is the case, with the action of some individuals restricted by the cynicism of others. Some examples of issues that contribute to a negative safety culture are: non-adherence to the established instructions and procedures, unclear definition of responsibilities, disinterest and inattentiveness, overestimation of own capabilities and arrogance, unclear rules, and mistrust between involved organisations. In addition to differentiation and importance of Safety Culture, necessary commitment levels, safety management framework, the paper discusses integration of Safety Culture in transient analyses of nuclear power plants. In this course the commitment to Safety Culture is defined as: a good Safety Culture depends on the continuous commitment and fulfilment of all involved organizations, persons and processes without any exception. (author)

Safety culture and public acceptance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikhalevich, Alexander A.

2002-01-01

After the Chernobyl NPP accident a public acceptance has become a key factor in nuclear power development all over the world. Therefore, nuclear safety culture should be based not only on technical principles, responsibilities, supervision, regulatory provisions, emergency preparedness, but the public awareness of minimum risk during the operation and decommissioning of NPPs, radioactive waste management, etc. (author)

An Approach to Enhancement of the Safety Culture of Nuclear Power Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Yong Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

The culture of an organization is very complex to study and evaluate, but it is possible to examine the specific norms that figure out the culture for the safety of a system. This paper describes an initiation plan to study the safety culture issue in Korean NPPs. Recently there happened successively events that turned out to be socially prominent in Korea. Many issues on the safety culture aspect of NPPs have been raised including the types of errors such as violations, an intended concealment of safety-related information, counterfeit items, forgery process in procurement, and so on. Those were investigated in detail for the root causes of these issues as human and organizational errors and for the countermeasures to prevent those events. They are integrated into a correspondent long-term plan including the establishment of a fundamental infrastructure of safety culture management for operating NPPs in Korea. A monitoring system with analysis functions utilizing system dynamics simulation and data mining is proposed to be incorporated into a safety culture management system. Additionally, a set of training and support programs are to be developed for the enhancement of some selected competence of the operating personnel in Korean NPPs. The safe operation of NPPs requires the typical safety culture characteristics of the high reliability organization (HRO). The culture of an organization is very complex to study and evaluate, but it is possible to examine the specific norms that figure out the culture for the safety of a system. This paper describes an integrated systems approach as an initiating plan to study the safety culture issue in Korean NPPs.

An Approach to Enhancement of the Safety Culture of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yong Hee

2014-01-01

The culture of an organization is very complex to study and evaluate, but it is possible to examine the specific norms that figure out the culture for the safety of a system. This paper describes an initiation plan to study the safety culture issue in Korean NPPs. Recently there happened successively events that turned out to be socially prominent in Korea. Many issues on the safety culture aspect of NPPs have been raised including the types of errors such as violations, an intended concealment of safety-related information, counterfeit items, forgery process in procurement, and so on. Those were investigated in detail for the root causes of these issues as human and organizational errors and for the countermeasures to prevent those events. They are integrated into a correspondent long-term plan including the establishment of a fundamental infrastructure of safety culture management for operating NPPs in Korea. A monitoring system with analysis functions utilizing system dynamics simulation and data mining is proposed to be incorporated into a safety culture management system. Additionally, a set of training and support programs are to be developed for the enhancement of some selected competence of the operating personnel in Korean NPPs. The safe operation of NPPs requires the typical safety culture characteristics of the high reliability organization (HRO). The culture of an organization is very complex to study and evaluate, but it is possible to examine the specific norms that figure out the culture for the safety of a system. This paper describes an integrated systems approach as an initiating plan to study the safety culture issue in Korean NPPs

Developing and Strengthening of Safety Culture at Ukrainian NPPs: Experience of NNEGC “Energoatom”

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sheyko, Y.; Kotin, P.

2016-01-01

The moratorium, which was introduced in Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident, for the construction of new nuclear power plants at the legislative level, was broken in 2004, when two new power units at Khmelnytsky and Rivne nuclear power plant were put into operation. Currently, the nuclear energy sector plays the main role for electric power industry of Ukraine. Ukraine has the intention to finish the construction of two new units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. NAEC “Energoatom”, as the operating organization, is aware that the attitude and behavior of top management as well as organizational features and activities have a significant impact on the safety culture. In the management statement dedicated to nuclear safety establishment, NAEC declares the absolute priority of safety over other objectives, in accordance with the principles of safety culture. Beginning with 2009, in scope with the IAEA recommendations, and based on the introduced in Ukraine in 2008 of the new revision of safety rules “General Safety of nuclear power plants”, NAEC “Energoatom” activities for improving the safety culture are being carried out under special programs. There are three levels of management for this activities: • Council on safety culture (top management); • Working Group (representatives of all divisions of NAEC); • Committees on safety culture (all NPP sites). The programs are developed and updated every two years and the implementation of measures is provided on three levels of responsibility: • Technical policy for the safety; • responsibility and leadership obligations; • personal responsibility and duties of every employee. The main achievement of these programs has been to define and establish the strategy and a set of permanent measures which are aimed at improving the safety culture. On the basis of corporate programs the plants developed the programs of concrete actions aimed at the establishment and development of a safety culture

A paradigm shift in organisational safety culture evaluation and training

OpenAIRE

Cram, Robert; Sime, Julie-Ann

2015-01-01

The focus of this research is to explore the issues surrounding traditional approaches towards understanding the safety culture of an organisation operating in a high risk environment and to identify an effective technique to educate corporate management in how to measure and evaluate the underlying safety culture of their own organisations. The results of the first part of the research highlight the concerns being expressed by both academic and industrial communities that current safety cult...

A methodology for a quantitative assessment of safety culture in NPPs based on Bayesian networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Young Gab; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A safety culture framework and a quantitative methodology to assess safety culture were proposed. • The relation among Norm system, Safety Management System and worker's awareness was established. • Safety culture probability at NPPs was updated by collecting actual organizational data. • Vulnerable areas and the relationship between safety culture and human error were confirmed. - Abstract: For a long time, safety has been recognized as a top priority in high-reliability industries such as aviation and nuclear power plants (NPPs). Establishing a safety culture requires a number of actions to enhance safety, one of which is changing the safety culture awareness of workers. The concept of safety culture in the nuclear power domain was established in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety series, wherein the importance of employee attitudes for maintaining organizational safety was emphasized. Safety culture assessment is a critical step in the process of enhancing safety culture. In this respect, assessment is focused on measuring the level of safety culture in an organization, and improving any weakness in the organization. However, many continue to think that the concept of safety culture is abstract and unclear. In addition, the results of safety culture assessments are mostly subjective and qualitative. Given the current situation, this paper suggests a quantitative methodology for safety culture assessments based on a Bayesian network. A proposed safety culture framework for NPPs would include the following: (1) a norm system, (2) a safety management system, (3) safety culture awareness of worker, and (4) Worker behavior. The level of safety culture awareness of workers at NPPs was reasoned through the proposed methodology. Then, areas of the organization that were vulnerable in terms of safety culture were derived by analyzing observational evidence. We also confirmed that the frequency of events involving human error

Safety culture : a significant influence on safety in transportation

Science.gov (United States)

2017-08-01

An organizations safety culture can influence safety outcomes. Research and experience show that when safety culture is strong, accidents are less frequent and less severe. As a result, building and maintaining strong safety cultures should be a t...

How Differences Between Manager and Clinician Perceptions of Safety Culture Impact Hospital Processes of Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Jason; Mazurenko, Olena; Kazley, Abby Swanson; Ford, Eric W

2017-11-04

Evidenced-based processes of care improve patient outcomes, yet universal compliance is lacking, and perceptions of the quality of care are highly variable. The purpose of this study is to examine how differences in clinician and management perceptions on teamwork and communication relate to adherence to hospital processes of care. Hospitals submitted identifiable data for the 2012 Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare. The dependent variable was a composite, developed from the scores on adherence to acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia process of care measures. The primary independent variables reflected 4 safety culture domains: communication openness, feedback about errors, teamwork within units, and teamwork between units. We assigned each hospital into one of 4 groups based on agreement between managers and clinicians on each domain. Each hospital was categorized as "high" (above the median) or "low" (below) for clinicians and managers in communication and teamwork. We found a positive relationship between perceived teamwork and communication climate and processes of care measures. If managers and clinicians perceived the communication openness as high, the hospital was more likely to adhere with processes of care. Similarly, if clinicians perceived teamwork across units as high, the hospital was more likely to adhere to processes of care. Manager and staff perceptions about teamwork and communications impact adherence to processes of care. Policies should recognize the importance of perceptions of both clinicians and managers on teamwork and communication and seek to improve organizational climate and practices. Clinician perceptions of teamwork across units are more closely linked to processes of care, so managers should be cognizant and try to improve their perceptions.

Safety Culture Perceptions in a Collegiate Aviation Program: A Systematic Assessment

OpenAIRE

Adjekum, Daniel Kwasi

2014-01-01

An assessment of the perceptions of respondents on the safety culture at an accredited Part 141 four year collegiate aviation program was conducted as part of the implementation of a safety management system (SMS). The Collegiate Aviation Program Safety Culture Assessment Survey (CAPSCAS), which was modified and revalidated from the existing Commercial Aviation Safety Survey (CASS), was used. Participants were drawn from flight students and certified flight instructors in the program. The sur...

Safety Evakuation Of Triga-2000 Reactor Operation Viewed From Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karliana, Itjeu

2001-01-01

The safety evaluation activities of TRIGA-2000 operation viewed from safety culture performed by questioners data collected from the operators and supervisor site of TRIGA-2000 P3TN, Bandung. There are 9 activity aspects surveyed, for instant to avail the policy of safety from their chairman, safety management, education and training, emergency aids planning, safety consultancy, accident information, safety analysis, safety devices, safety and occupational health. The surveying undertaken by filling the questioner that containing of 9 activity aspects and 20 samples of employees. The safety evaluation results' of the operation personnel in TRIGA-2000 P3TN are good implemented by both the operators and supervisors should be improve and attention need to provide the equipment's. The education and training especially for safety refreshment must be performing

Safety culture of complex risky systems: the Nuclear Engineering Institute case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obadia, Isaac Jose; Vidal, Mario Cesar Rodriguez; Melo, Paulo Fernando F. Frutuoso e

2002-01-01

Analysis of industrial accidents have demonstrated that safe and reliable operation of complex industrial processes that use risky technology and/or hazard material depends not only on technical factors but on human and organizational factors as well. After the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, the International Atomic Energy Agency established the safety culture concept and started a safety culture enhancement program within nuclear organizations worldwide. The Nuclear Engineering Institute, IEN, is a research and technological development unit of the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission, CNEN, characterized as a nuclear and radioactive installation where processes presenting risks to operators and to the environment are executed. In 1999, IEN started a management change program, aiming to achieve excellence of performance, based on the Model of Excellence of the National Quality Award. IEN's safety culture project is based on IAEA methodology and has been incorporated to the organizational management process. This work presents IEN's safety culture project; the results obtained on the initial safety culture assessment and the following project actions. (author)

Safety principles and design management of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geng Qirui; Cheng Pingdong

1997-01-01

The basic safety consideration and detailed design principles in the design of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant is elaborated. The management within the frame setting up by 'safety culture' and 'quality culture'

Review of the conclusions of the 1996 workshop on safety culture, in Forsmark, Sweden

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eckered, T [PROMENT LTD (Sweden)

1997-09-01

The IAEA/SiP Senior Managers Workshop on International Promotion of Safety Culture for the NPPs with RBMK reactors was organized by IAEA and the Swedish International Project Nuclear Safety (SiP). It took place at the Forsmark NPP, Sweden, from 1 to 4 October 1996. The objective of the workshop were to provide a forum managers to exchange national and international experience on factors influencing safety culture, to better understand these factors and to further enhance promotion of safety culture. The Workshop participants started work by agreeing to seek the answers to the following three questions: 1. What constitutes a good Safety Culture? 2. What is good and bad in our own countries and plants from a Safety Culture point of view? 3. Where can we find advice and help from our colleagues to improve our own Safety Culture? This was the first workshop specifically addressing Safety Culture in RBMK countries. The aim was therefore not to produce good practices, but to lay a foundation for further work and development. A follow-up workshop should deepen the understanding of the SC concept and address specific SC matters identified at this Workshop.

Review of the conclusions of the 1996 workshop on safety culture, in Forsmark, Sweden

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eckered, T.

1997-01-01

The IAEA/SiP Senior Managers Workshop on International Promotion of Safety Culture for the NPPs with RBMK reactors was organized by IAEA and the Swedish International Project Nuclear Safety (SiP). It took place at the Forsmark NPP, Sweden, from 1 to 4 October 1996. The objective of the workshop were to provide a forum managers to exchange national and international experience on factors influencing safety culture, to better understand these factors and to further enhance promotion of safety culture. The Workshop participants started work by agreeing to seek the answers to the following three questions: 1. What constitutes a good Safety Culture? 2. What is good and bad in our own countries and plants from a Safety Culture point of view? 3. Where can we find advice and help from our colleagues to improve our own Safety Culture? This was the first workshop specifically addressing Safety Culture in RBMK countries. The aim was therefore not to produce good practices, but to lay a foundation for further work and development. A follow-up workshop should deepen the understanding of the SC concept and address specific SC matters identified at this Workshop

Challenges and Enhancements to the Safety Culture of the Regulatory Body

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niel, Jean-Christophe; Chevet, Pierre Franck; Sheron, Brian; Boyd, Michael; Carlsson, Lennart; Tiippana, Petteri; Burns, Stephen; Jamieson, Terry; Fuketa, Toyoshi; Rzentkowski, Greg; Weiss, Frank Peter; Le Guen, Bernard

2015-06-01

The workshop opened with presentations by both the NEA Director-General and the chair of the three committees directly involved with the safety culture of the regulatory body (SCRB). The opening session set the scene and gave an overview of the SCRB together with presentations and discussions on priorities and challenges. The main session focused on the principles of the SCRB, its implementation and the challenges and enhancements that are being raised and considered. The workshop concluded with a session that looked at findings and conclusions, the way forward and an agreed position on the SCRB. This document brings together the available presentations (slides) given at the workshop: 1 - Introduction: Challenges and Enhancements to the Safety Culture of the Regulatory Body (J-C. Niel); 2 - Thoughts on Safety Culture from a CSNI Perspective (B. Sheron); 3 - Radiological Protection Culture: CRPPH Work (M. Boyd); 4 - Challenges and Enhancements to Safety Culture of the Regulatory Body (L. Carlsson); 5 - Principles for the safety culture of the regulatory body (P. Tiippana); 6 - NRC's Internal Safety Culture: Successes, Challenges, and the Path Forward (S.G. Burns); 7 - Insights on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's Safety Culture Journey (T. Jamieson); 8 - Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident regarding Safety Culture of Regulatory Body (T. Fuketa); 9 - Challenges to Regulatory Bodies' safety culture (P-F. Chevet); 10 - Regulatory Safety Culture: International Perspective (G. Rzentkowski); 11 - Integration of Safety Research into Safety Culture Concepts (F-P. Weiss); 12 - Radiation Protection and Emergency Management Aspects: Culture drawn up by RP professionals (B. Le Guen); 13 - Closing session panel (L. Carlsson)

Key practical issues in strengthening safety culture. INSAG-15. A report by the International Safety Advisory Group [Russian Edition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

This report describes the essential practical issues to be considered by organizations aiming to strengthen safety culture. It is intended for senior executives, managers and first line supervisors in operating organizations. Although safety culture cannot be directly regulated, it is important that members of regulatory bodies understand how their actions affect the development of attempts to strengthen safety culture and are sympathetic to the need to improve the less formal human related aspects of safety. The report is therefore of relevance to regulators, although not intended primarily for them. The International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) introduced the concept of safety culture in its INSAG-4 report in 1991. Since then, many papers have been written on safety culture, as it relates to organizations and individuals, its improvement and its underpinning prerequisites. Variations in national cultures mean that what constitutes a good approach to enhancing safety culture in one country may not be the best approach in another. However, INSAG seeks to provide pragmatic and practical advice of wide applicability in the principles and issues presented in this report. Nuclear and radiological safety are the prime concerns of this report, but the topics discussed are so general that successful application of the principles should lead to improvements in other important areas, such as industrial safety, environmental performance and, in some respects, wider business performance. This is because many of the attitudes and practices necessary to achieve good performance in nuclear safety, including visible commitment by management, openness, care and thoroughness in completing tasks, good communication and clarity in recognizing major issues and dealing with them as a priority, have wide applicability

The safety culture change process performed in Polish research reactor MARIA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golab, Andrzej

2002-01-01

The Safety Culture Change Process Performed in research reactor MARIA is described in this paper. The essential issues fulfilled in realization of the Safety Culture Enhancement Programme are related to the attitude and behaviour of top management, co-operating groups, operational personnel, relations between the operating organization and the supervising and advising organizations. Realization of this programme is based on changing the employees understanding of safety, changing their attitudes and behaviours by means of adequate training, requalification process and performing the broad self-assessment programme. Also a high level Quality Assurance Programme helps in development of the Safety Culture. (author)

Safety culture assessment developed by JANTI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamada, Jun

2009-01-01

Japan's JCO accident in September 1999 provided a real-life example of what can happen when insufficient attention is paid to safety culture. This accident brought to light the importance of safety culture and reinforced the movement to foster a safety culture. Despite this, accidents and inappropriate conduct have continued to occur. Therefore, there is a strong demand to instill a safety culture throughout the nuclear power industry. In this context, Japan's nuclear power regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), decided to include in its safety inspections assessments of the safety culture found in power utilities' routine safety operations to get signs of deterioration in the organizational climate. In 2007, NISA constructed guidelines for their inspectors to carry out these assessments. At the same time, utilities have embarked on their own independent safety culture initiatives, such as revising their technical specifications and building effective PDCA cycle to promote safety culture. In concert with these developments, JANTI has also instituted safety culture assessments. (author)

Evaluation of Influence Factors within Implementing of Nuclear Safety Culture in Embarking Countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Situmorang, J.

2016-01-01

The evaluation of the implementation nuclear safety culture at BATAN has been performed. BATAN is Indonesia’s national nuclear energy agency. Nowadays, BATAN is planning to develop an experimental power reactor. To implement the nuclear safety culture BATAN has issued BATAN chairman regulation (Perka BATAN 200). Perka BATAN is the reference for individuals and organizations to implement nuclear safety culture which includes basic principles, mechanisms, assessment, as well as the implementation of the application of safety culture. It covers the establishment of safety policies, program development, program implementation, development and measurement of safety culture. Each facilities within BATAN is expected to well implement a safety culture. The implementation of safety culture is developed by considering the characteristics, attributes and indicators. The characteristics, attributes and indicators referenced are elaborated from the IAEA. The activities to strengthen safety culture are monthly workshop with participants is head of every facilities, safety leadership training and workshop for safety division manager in every facilities. It is also issued a handbook of safety that is distributed to all employees BATAN.

Causal Relationship Analysis of the Patient Safety Culture Based on Safety Attitudes Questionnaire in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Pei-Shan; Huang, Chih-Hsuan

2018-01-01

This study uses the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method to identify critical dimensions of the safety attitudes questionnaire in Taiwan in order to improve the patient safety culture from experts' viewpoints. Teamwork climate, stress recognition, and perceptions of management are three causal dimensions, while safety climate, job satisfaction, and working conditions are receiving dimensions. In practice, improvements on effect-based dimensions might receive little effects when a great amount of efforts have been invested. In contrast, improving a causal dimension not only improves itself but also results in better performance of other dimension(s) directly affected by this particular dimension. Teamwork climate and perceptions of management are found to be the most critical dimensions because they are both causal dimensions and have significant influences on four dimensions apiece. It is worth to note that job satisfaction is the only dimension affected by the other dimensions. In order to effectively enhance the patient safety culture for healthcare organizations, teamwork climate, and perceptions of management should be closely monitored. PMID:29686825

Causal Relationship Analysis of the Patient Safety Culture Based on Safety Attitudes Questionnaire in Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yii-Ching Lee

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study uses the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method to identify critical dimensions of the safety attitudes questionnaire in Taiwan in order to improve the patient safety culture from experts’ viewpoints. Teamwork climate, stress recognition, and perceptions of management are three causal dimensions, while safety climate, job satisfaction, and working conditions are receiving dimensions. In practice, improvements on effect-based dimensions might receive little effects when a great amount of efforts have been invested. In contrast, improving a causal dimension not only improves itself but also results in better performance of other dimension(s directly affected by this particular dimension. Teamwork climate and perceptions of management are found to be the most critical dimensions because they are both causal dimensions and have significant influences on four dimensions apiece. It is worth to note that job satisfaction is the only dimension affected by the other dimensions. In order to effectively enhance the patient safety culture for healthcare organizations, teamwork climate, and perceptions of management should be closely monitored.

A literature review of safety culture.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cole, Kerstan Suzanne; Stevens-Adams, Susan Marie; Wenner, Caren A.

2013-03-01

Workplace safety has been historically neglected by organizations in order to enhance profitability. Over the past 30 years, safety concerns and attention to safety have increased due to a series of disastrous events occurring across many different industries (e.g., Chernobyl, Upper Big-Branch Mine, Davis-Besse etc.). Many organizations have focused on promoting a healthy safety culture as a way to understand past incidents, and to prevent future disasters. There is an extensive academic literature devoted to safety culture, and the Department of Energy has also published a significant number of documents related to safety culture. The purpose of the current endeavor was to conduct a review of the safety culture literature in order to understand definitions, methodologies, models, and successful interventions for improving safety culture. After reviewing the literature, we observed four emerging themes. First, it was apparent that although safety culture is a valuable construct, it has some inherent weaknesses. For example, there is no common definition of safety culture and no standard way for assessing the construct. Second, it is apparent that researchers know how to measure particular components of safety culture, with specific focus on individual and organizational factors. Such existing methodologies can be leveraged for future assessments. Third, based on the published literature, the relationship between safety culture and performance is tenuous at best. There are few empirical studies that examine the relationship between safety culture and safety performance metrics. Further, most of these studies do not include a description of the implementation of interventions to improve safety culture, or do not measure the effect of these interventions on safety culture or performance. Fourth, safety culture is best viewed as a dynamic, multi-faceted overall system composed of individual, engineered and organizational models. By addressing all three components of

Promoting safety culture in radiation industry through radiation audit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noriah, M.A.

2007-01-01

This paper illustrates the Malaysian experience in implementing and promoting effective radiation safety program. Current management practice demands that an organization inculcate culture of safety in preventing radiation hazard. The aforementioned objectives of radiation protection can only be met when it is implemented and evaluated continuously. Commitment from the workforce to treat safety as a priority and the ability to turn a requirement into a practical language is also important to implement radiation safety policy efficiently. Maintaining and improving safety culture is a continuous process. There is a need to establish a program to measure, review and audit health and safety performance against predetermined standards. This program is known as radiation safety audit and is able to reveal where and when action is needed to make improvements to the systems of controls. A structured and proper radiation self-auditing system is seen as the sole requirement to meet the current and future needs in sustainability of radiation safety. As a result safety culture, which has been a vital element on safety in many industries can be improved and promote changes, leading to good safety performance and excellence. (author)

Dimensions of patient safety culture in family practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Palacios-Derflingher, Luz; O'Beirne, Maeve; Sterling, Pam; Zwicker, Karen; Harding, Brianne K; Casebeer, Ann

2010-01-01

Safety culture has been shown to affect patient safety in healthcare. While the United States and United Kingdom have studied the dimensions that reflect patient safety culture in family practice settings, to date, this has not been done in Canada. Differences in the healthcare systems between these countries and Canada may affect the dimensions found to be relevant here. Thus, it is important to identify and compare the dimensions from the United States and the United Kingdom in a Canadian context. The objectives of this study were to explore the dimensions of patient safety culture that relate to family practice in Canada and to determine if differences and similarities exist between dimensions found in Canada and those found in previous studies undertaken in the United States and the United Kingdom. A qualitative study was undertaken applying thematic analysis using focus groups with family practice offices and supplementary key stakeholders. Analysis of the data indicated that most of the dimensions from the United States and United Kingdom are appropriate in our Canadian context. Exceptions included owner/managing partner/leadership support for patient safety, job satisfaction and overall perceptions of patient safety and quality. Two unique dimensions were identified in the Canadian context: disclosure and accepting responsibility for errors. Based on this early work, it is important to consider differences in care settings when understanding dimensions of patient safety culture. We suggest that additional research in family practice settings is critical to further understand the influence of context on patient safety culture.

Global nuclear safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

As stated in the Nuclear Safety Review 1996, three components characterize the global nuclear safety culture infrastructure: (i) legally binding international agreements; (ii) non-binding common safety standards; and (iii) the application of safety standards. The IAEA has continued to foster the global nuclear safety culture by supporting intergovernmental collaborative efforts; it has facilitated extensive information exchange, promoted the drafting of international legal agreements and the development of common safety standards, and provided for the application of safety standards by organizing a wide variety of expert services

Nuclear safety culture in Finland and Sweden - Developments and challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, T.; Pietikaeinen, E.; Kahlbom, U.; Rollenhagen, C.

2011-02-01

The project aimed at studying the concept of nuclear safety culture and the Nordic nuclear branch safety culture. The project also aimed at looking how the power companies and the regulators view the current responsibilities and role of subcontractors in the Nordic nuclear safety culture as well as to inspect the special demands for safety culture in subcontracting chains. Interview data was collected in Sweden (n = 14) and Finland (n = 16) during 2009. Interviewees represented the major actors in the nuclear field (regulators, power companies, expert organizations, waste management organizations). Results gave insight into the nature and evaluation of safety culture in the nuclear industry. Results illustrated that there is a wide variety of views on matters that are considered important for nuclear safety within the Nordic nuclear community. However, the interviewees considered quite uniformly such psychological states as motivation, mindfulness, sense of control, understanding of hazards and sense of responsibility as important for nuclear safety. Results also gave insight into the characteristics of Nordic nuclear culture. Various differences in safety cultures in Finland and Sweden were uncovered. In addition to the differences, historical reasons for the development of the nuclear safety cultures in Finland and Sweden were pointed out. Finally, results gave implications that on the one hand subcontractors can bring new ideas and improvements to the plants' practices, but on the other hand the assurance of necessary safety attitudes and competence of the subcontracting companies and their employees is considered as a challenge. The report concludes that a good safety culture requires a deep and wide understanding of nuclear safety including the various accident mechanisms of the power plants as well as a willingness to continuously develop one's competence and understanding. An effective and resilient nuclear safety culture has to foster a constant sense of

Relationship between ethical leadership and organisational commitment of nurses with perception of patient safety culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Lotfi, Zahra; Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, Foroozan; Mohtashami, Jamileh; Nasiri, Maliheh

2018-03-12

To determine the relationship between ethical leadership, organisational commitment of nurses and their perception of patient safety culture. Patient safety, organisational commitment and ethical leadership styles are very important for improving the quality of nursing care. In this descriptive-correlational study, 340 nurses were selected using random sampling from the hospitals in Tehran in 2016. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS v.20. There was a significant positive relationship between the ethical leadership of nursing managers, perception of patient safety culture and organisational commitment. The regression analysis showed that nursing managers' ethical leadership and nurses' organisational commitment is a predictor of patient safety culture and confirms the relationship between the variables. Regarding the relationship between the nurses' safety performance, ethical leadership and organisational commitment, it seems that the optimisation of the organisational commitment and adherence to ethical leadership by administrators and managers in hospitals could improve the nurses' performance in terms of patient safety. Implementing ethical leadership seems to be one feasible strategy to improve nurses' organisational commitment and perception of patient safety culture. Efforts by nurse managers to develop ethical leadership reinforce organisational commitment to improve patient outcomes. Nurse managers' engagement and performance in this process is vital for a successful result. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Innovative Modelling Approach of Safety Culture Assessment in Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, N.

2016-01-01

A culture is commonly defined as the shared set of norms and values that govern appropriate individual behavior. Safety culture is the subset of organizational culture that reflects the general attitude and approaches to safety and risk management. While safety is sometimes narrowly defined in terms of human death and injury, we use a more inclusive definition that also considers mission loss as a safety problem and is thus applicable to nuclear power plants and missions. The recent accident reports and investigations of the nuclear power plant mission failures (i.e., TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima) point to safety cultural problems in nuclear power plants. Many assessment approaches have been developed by organizations such as IAEA and INPO based on the assessment of parameters at separate levels — individuals, groups, and organizations.

Management concepts and safety applications for nuclear fuel facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eisner, H.; Scotti, R.S.

1995-05-01

This report presents an overview of effectiveness of management control of safety. It reviews several modern management control theories as well as the general functions of management and relates them to safety issues at the corporate and at the process safety management (PSM) program level. Following these discussions, structured technique for assessing management of the safety function is suggested. Seven modern management control theories are summarized, including business process reengineering, the learning organization, capability maturity, total quality management, quality assurance and control, reliability centered maintenance, and industrial process safety. Each of these theories is examined for-its principal characteristics and implications for safety management. The five general management functions of planning, organizing, directing, monitoring, and integrating, which together provide control over all company operations, are discussed. Under the broad categories of Safety Culture, Leadership and Commitment, and Operating Excellence, key corporate safety elements and their subelements are examined. The three categories under which PSM program-level safety issues are described are Technology, Personnel, and Facilities

Management concepts and safety applications for nuclear fuel facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eisner, H.; Scotti, R.S. [George Washington Univ., Washington, DC (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Science; Delicate, W.S. [KEVRIC Co., Inc., Silver Spring, MD (United States)

1995-05-01

This report presents an overview of effectiveness of management control of safety. It reviews several modern management control theories as well as the general functions of management and relates them to safety issues at the corporate and at the process safety management (PSM) program level. Following these discussions, structured technique for assessing management of the safety function is suggested. Seven modern management control theories are summarized, including business process reengineering, the learning organization, capability maturity, total quality management, quality assurance and control, reliability centered maintenance, and industrial process safety. Each of these theories is examined for-its principal characteristics and implications for safety management. The five general management functions of planning, organizing, directing, monitoring, and integrating, which together provide control over all company operations, are discussed. Under the broad categories of Safety Culture, Leadership and Commitment, and Operating Excellence, key corporate safety elements and their subelements are examined. The three categories under which PSM program-level safety issues are described are Technology, Personnel, and Facilities.

Safety culture evaluation and asset root cause analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okrent, D.; Xiong, Y.

1995-01-01

This paper examines the role of organizational and management factors in nuclear power plant safety through the use of operating experiences. The ASSET (Assessment of Safety Significant Events Team) reports of thirteen plants (total thirty events) have been analyzed in term of twenty organizational dimensions (factors) identified by Brookhaven National Laboratory and Pennsylvania State University. For three plants detailed results are reported in this paper. The results of thirteen plants are summarized in the form of a table. The study tends to confirm that organizational and management factors play an important role in plant safety. The twenty organizational dimensions and their definitions, in general, were adequate in this study. Formalization, Safety Culture, Technical Knowledge, Training, Roles-Responsibilities and Problem Identification appear to be key organizational factors which influence the safety of nuclear power plants studied

Regulatory Expectations for Safety Culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Su Jin; Oh, Jang Jin; Choi, Young Sung [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

The oversight of licensee's safety culture becomes an important issue that attracts great public and political concerns recently in Korea. Beginning from the intended violation of rules, a series of corruptions, documents forgery and disclosure of wrong-doings made the public think that the whole mindset of nuclear workers has been inadequate. Thus, they are demanding that safety culture shall be improved and that regulatory body shall play more roles and responsibilities for the improvements and oversight for them. This paper introduces, as an effort of regulatory side, recent changes in the role of regulators in safety culture, regulatory expectations on the desired status of licensee's safety culture, the pilot inspection program for safety culture and research activity for the development of oversight system. After the Fukushima accident in Japan 2011, many critics has searched for cultural factors that caused the unacceptable negligence pervaded in Japan nuclear society and the renewed emphasis has been placed on rebuilding safety culture by operators, regulators, and relevant institutions globally. Significant progress has been made in how to approach safety culture and led to a new perspective different from the existing normative assessment method both in operators and regulatory side. Regulatory expectations and oversight of them are based on such a new holistic concept for human, organizational and cultural elements to maintain and strengthen the integrity of defense in depth and consequently nuclear safety.

Regulatory Expectations for Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Su Jin; Oh, Jang Jin; Choi, Young Sung

2014-01-01

The oversight of licensee's safety culture becomes an important issue that attracts great public and political concerns recently in Korea. Beginning from the intended violation of rules, a series of corruptions, documents forgery and disclosure of wrong-doings made the public think that the whole mindset of nuclear workers has been inadequate. Thus, they are demanding that safety culture shall be improved and that regulatory body shall play more roles and responsibilities for the improvements and oversight for them. This paper introduces, as an effort of regulatory side, recent changes in the role of regulators in safety culture, regulatory expectations on the desired status of licensee's safety culture, the pilot inspection program for safety culture and research activity for the development of oversight system. After the Fukushima accident in Japan 2011, many critics has searched for cultural factors that caused the unacceptable negligence pervaded in Japan nuclear society and the renewed emphasis has been placed on rebuilding safety culture by operators, regulators, and relevant institutions globally. Significant progress has been made in how to approach safety culture and led to a new perspective different from the existing normative assessment method both in operators and regulatory side. Regulatory expectations and oversight of them are based on such a new holistic concept for human, organizational and cultural elements to maintain and strengthen the integrity of defense in depth and consequently nuclear safety

Diagnosis of poor safety culture as a major shortcoming in OHSAS 18001-certified companies.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghahramani, Abolfazl

2017-04-07

The evaluation of safety performance in occupational health and safety assessment series (OHSAS) 18001-certified companies provides useful information about the quality of the management system. A certified organization should employ an adequate level of safety management and a positive safety culture to achieve a satisfactory safety performance. The present study conducted in six manufacturing companies: three OHSAS 18001-certified, and three non-certified to assess occupational health and safety (OHS) as well as OHSAS 18001 practices. The certified companies had a better OHS practices compared with the non-certified companies. The certified companies slightly differed in OHS and OHSAS 18001 practices and one of the certified companies had the highest activity rates for both practices. The results indicated that the implemented management systems have not developed and been maintained appropriately in the certified companies. The in-depth analysis of the collected evidence revealed shortcomings in safety culture improvement in the certified companies. This study highlights the importance of safety culture to continuously improve the quality of OHSAS 18001 and to properly perform OHS/OHSAS 18001 practices in the certified companies.

U.S. assistance enhancing safety culture in countries operating Soviet-designed reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guppy, J.G.; Horak, W.C.; Reisman, A.W.

1995-01-01

The United States Department of Energy (USDOE) is managing the International Nuclear Safety Program (INSP), which is aimed at providing assistance to enhance safety at commercial nuclear power plants (NPPS) in Russia and Ukraine, as well as Central European countries (CEC). The funding for this program has been provided by the US Agency for International Development (AID). Brookhaven National Laboratory has been assisting DOE in certain portions of this program. The enhancement of safety culture is one of the most important goals of the joint International Nuclear Safety Program. In terms of the INSP, safety culture is comprised of two major components; (1) an environment that is a function of regulations, management sensitivity and structure; and (2) an individual commitment to safety in the day to day execution of activities in terms of thought and accountability. The long term impact of the INSP activities can only be measured by the effectiveness of strengthening safety culture within our partner counties. The strengthening of this culture will manifest in reduced risk of a nuclear accident long after other evidence of the INSP activities has disappeared. One area within the INSP, which has already led to a number of successful specific projects, is under the plant safety upgrade activities. Here, the US and the partner countries jointly identify specific target areas for the INSP efforts. Each identified area has a major component involving safety culture enhancement. With any direct involvement in the particular assistance activities, areas are identified to include a need for training. As technical experts and management from the partner country are assisted in addressing the identified needs, the training programs are provided which will not only address the specific need at hand, but will also teach skills which can be applied to different, but related needs that may exist or develop

Objective and character of safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aastrand, K.

2005-01-01

The main topics of the lecture include: (1) concepts of safety culture introduced in INSAG-4, (2) stages of development of safety culture, (3) general practises to develop organizational effectiveness as a means of implementing and improving safety culture, (4) specific practises to develop safety culture applying to all stages of a nuclear installation's life cycle, (5) suggestions on assessing the progress of development of safety culture in an organization and on evaluating the influence of major environmental and internal organizational factors on that culture, and (6) guidance on the detection of incipient weaknesses in safety culture that may be of particular interest to regulators and those responsible for self-assessment in organization

Variations in hospital worker perceptions of safety culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Listyowardojo, Tita Alissa; Nap, Raoul E; Johnson, Addie

2012-02-01

To compare the attitudes toward and perceptions of institutional practices that can influence patient safety between all professional groups at a university medical center. A questionnaire measuring nine dimensions of organizational and safety culture was distributed to all hospital workers. Each item was rated on a 1 ('strongly disagree') to 5 ('strongly agree') scale. Professionals (2995), grouped as 'physicians' (16.6%), 'nurses' (40.3%), 'clinical workers' (e.g. psychologists; 21.7%), 'laboratory workers' (e.g. technicians; 11%) and 'non-medical workers' (e.g. managers; 10.4%). One-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) carried out separately on each dimension with professional group as the independent variable of interest. Differences in ratings of organizational and safety culture were found across professional groups. Physicians and non-medical workers tended to rate the dimensions of organizational and safety culture more positively than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers. For example, physicians gave more positive ratings of 'institutional commitment to safety' than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers (mean = 3.71 vs. 3.62, 3.61 and 3.58, respectively, P vs. 3.39, 3.36, 3.49 and 3.47, respectively, P culture should be tailored to the target group as attitudes and perceptions may differ among groups.

Safety Culture Assessment at Regulatory Body - PNRA Experience of Implementing IAEA Methodology for Safety Culture Self Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhatti, S.A.N.; Arshad, N.

2016-01-01

The prevalence of a good safety culture is equally important for all kind of organizations involved in nuclear business including operating organizations, designers, regulator, etc., and this should be reflected through all the processes and activities of these organizations. The need for inculcating safety culture into regulatory processes and practices is gradually increasing since the major accident at Fukushima. Accordingly, several international fora in last few years repeatedly highlighted the importance of prevalence of safety culture in regulatory bodies as well. The utilisation of concept of safety culture always remained applicable in regulatory activities of PNRA in the form of core values. After the Fukushima accident, PNRA considered it important to check the extent of utilisation of safety culture concept in organizational activities and decided to conduct its “Safety Culture Self-Assessment (SCSA)” for presenting itself as a role model in-order to endorse the fact that safety culture at regulatory authority plays an important role to influence safety culture at licenced facilities.

Safety Culture Assessment Tools in Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Domains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mkrtchyan, L.; Turcanu, C.

2012-01-01

Over the last decades, in many domains especially in high risk industries, the authorities paid increasing attention to safety management systems and, in particular, to safety culture. Consequently, in the applied and academic literature a huge amount of studies explored the main challenges, issues and obstacles related with safety culture. We undertake a survey of safety culture experiences in the main safety-critical industries such as nuclear, railways, offshore, aviation, airlines, health care, etc. We review both academic and applied literature up to the year 2011. Our results help to establish a comprehensive view on the subject, its main terminologies, existing tools, and main difficulties. The purpose of this report is to raise awareness about the current tools of safety culture assessment, both in the nuclear as well as in the non-nuclear domain. The report provides also practical recommendations about the possible use of each tool given different circumstances and different factors. We do not aim to rank the tools pointing the best one, but we highlight instead the unique features of these tools, pointing their strong and weak sides

An Empirical Analysis of Human Performance and Nuclear Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeffrey Joe; Larry G. Blackwood

2006-01-01

The purpose of this analysis, which was conducted for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), was to test whether an empirical connection exists between human performance and nuclear power plant safety culture. This was accomplished through analyzing the relationship between a measure of human performance and a plant's Safety Conscious Work Environment (SCWE). SCWE is an important component of safety culture the NRC has developed, but it is not synonymous with it. SCWE is an environment in which employees are encouraged to raise safety concerns both to their own management and to the NRC without fear of harassment, intimidation, retaliation, or discrimination. Because the relationship between human performance and allegations is intuitively reciprocal and both relationship directions need exploration, two series of analyses were performed. First, human performance data could be indicative of safety culture, so regression analyses were performed using human performance data to predict SCWE. It also is likely that safety culture contributes to human performance issues at a plant, so a second set of regressions were performed using allegations to predict HFIS results

Safety Culture Assessment Tools in Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Domains

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mkrtchyan, L; Turcanu, C

2012-03-15

Over the last decades, in many domains especially in high risk industries, the authorities paid increasing attention to safety management systems and, in particular, to safety culture. Consequently, in the applied and academic literature a huge amount of studies explored the main challenges, issues and obstacles related with safety culture. We undertake a survey of safety culture experiences in the main safety-critical industries such as nuclear, railways, offshore, aviation, airlines, health care, etc. We review both academic and applied literature up to the year 2011. Our results help to establish a comprehensive view on the subject, its main terminologies, existing tools, and main difficulties. The purpose of this report is to raise awareness about the current tools of safety culture assessment, both in the nuclear as well as in the non-nuclear domain. The report provides also practical recommendations about the possible use of each tool given different circumstances and different factors. We do not aim to rank the tools pointing the best one, but we highlight instead the unique features of these tools, pointing their strong and weak sides.

Electronuclear's safety culture assessment and enhancement program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selvatici, E.; Diaz-Francisco, J.M.; Diniz de Souza, V.

2002-01-01

The present paper describes the Eletronuclear's safety culture assessment and enhancement program. The program was launched by the company's top management one year after the creation of Eletronuclear in 1997, from the merging of two companies with different organizational cultures, the design and engineering company Nuclen and the nuclear directorate of the Utility Furnas, Operator of the Angra1 NPP. The program consisted of an assessment performed internally in 1999 with the support and advice of the IAEA. This assessment, performed with the help of a survey, pooled about 80% of the company's employees. The overall result of the assessment was that a satisfactory level of safety culture existed; however, a number of points with a considerable margin for improvement were also identified. These points were mostly related with behavioural matters such as motivation, stress in the workplace, view of mistakes, handling of conflicts, and last but not least a view by a considerable number of employees that a conflict between safety and production might exist. An Action Plan was established by the company managers to tackle these weak points. This Plan was issued as company guideline by the company's Directorate. The subsequent step was to detail and implement the different actions of the Plan, which is the phase that we are at present. In the detailing of the Action Plan, special care was taken to sum up efforts, avoiding duplication of work or competition with already existing programs. In this process it was identified that the company had a considerable number of initiatives directly related to organizational and safety culture improvement, already operational. These initiatives have been integrated in the detailed Action Plan. A new assessment, for checking the effectiveness of the undertaken actions, is planned for 2003. (author)